Di Maria generally plays on the left wing and his arrival at Arsenal would place a major question mark over the future of Lukas Podolski, who himself is the subject of serious interest from Schalke, Wolfsburg and Galatasaray.
Podolski has failed to command a regular place in the team since his arrival last summer and, although he did score 16 goals last season, there were question marks over his work-rate and general contribution.
Benzema has been tracked by Wenger for many years, while chief scout Steve Rowley first began watching Di Maria before he moved to Benfica in 2007, while he was still based in Argentina.
Although Arsenal have faced stinging criticism over a perceived lack of planning this summer, they have been working through a variety of lists that were drawn up by the club's scouting department. Each of the club's scouts was asked to recommend two players in each position and, from that list, Wenger and Rowley have drawn up a top-five list of targets for each position.
They are also still actively looking to recruit a midfielder, goalkeeper and defender. Bids were made this week for the former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, who is now at Juventus, as well as Newcastle's Yohan Cabaye. Arsenal have been told that Pogba is not for sale at any price but, with Cabaye keen to leave Newcastle, a new bid of around £15 million is expected next week. Paris St-Germain are also interested, with Newcastle having initially said that they would want at least £20 million for their France midfielder.
Mathieu Flamini, Arsenal's former midfielder, has also been training with the club and is increasingly likely to be signed on a free transfer. Flamini's versatility is an added attraction for Wenger and, as well as boosting his central-midfield options in the current absence of Mikel Arteta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, he can also cover at right back.
Wenger has been seeking to add a right-sided defender and there has been tentative interest in Micah Richards, who has made little progress with contract talks at Manchester City and would cost around £10 million. There has been no bid for Swansea City's Ashley Williams.
Arsenal also hope to add a goalkeeper before the transfer window shuts on Sept 2, with Wenger now focused on Valencia's Vicente Guaita. An initial bid of £6 million has been rejected but Arsenal are expected to return with a new offer.
Buoyed by the 3-0 win over Fenerbahce on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League play-off, Wenger promised that the transfer window would start "now" for Arsenal and predicted that he would be very active.
Arsenal certainly do have substantial available resources. They renegotiated a shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates earlier this year and have also agreed, in principle, a new kit deal with Puma. Arsenal were previously locked into 10-year commercial partnerships to secure the funding for the Emirates and will add around £70 million of annual revenue from next year with their new deals. They had also built up a transfer budget of around £70 million following major player sales over the past three years.
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