Ofcourse, that is not specifically stated. But are we to assume that the republics starfighters, which are also not seen on film, contained all those droid fighters? Hello! droid factory planet! Also in the graphic novel they are swarming.So, unless the graphic novel stated that they were fending starfighters off incoming Accalamators to the surface, there shouldn't be any contradiction.
But hey, this is all speculation, since the space battle isn't discussed anywhere in detail. Believe what you will.