Chief executive Ivan Gazidis admits Arsenal cannot "outgun competitors" in their battle to sign key players.
The Gunners are yet to finalize a deal for a star signing having only concluded deals for Granit Xhaka, Takuma Asano, Rob Holding and soon-to-be-announced Kelechi Nwakali.
They were linked with former Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain but Gazidis says Arsenal fans should never expect such an expensive signing to be made.
"We can't afford to outgun competitors that have far more money," Gazidis told the New York Times.
"We have to be very careful, very selective.
"The constraints within the Premier League are less and less about pure finances.
"More relatively important become things like how well you identify players, how well you develop players, what kind of sports science you have, your analytics, your psychology.
"All of these support areas around what we do increasingly become bigger differentiators."
