Former Arsenal midfielder Perry Groves believes the club need to spend up to £150million on signings in order to be challenging under Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners kept their hopes of qualifying for Europe next season alive by beating newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool 2-1 on Wednesday night.
They will though have to rely on results elsewhere if they are to secure a place in the Europa League, or alternatively win the FA Cup, with their semi-final against Manchester City coming up at Wembley on Saturday.
It’s been an up and down season for the Gunners, who have shown promising signs under Arteta since his appointment back in December.
Their frailties, especially in defence, have been evident though, and while Groves recognises the work Arteta is doing, he feels he needs some big backing to get the Gunners back challenging at the top end of the table.
Reflecting on the win over Liverpool, Groves told talkSPORT: “Arsenal need money spent in different areas, especially at centre-half and in central midfield.
“As an Arsenal fan, I’d rather have beaten Spurs at the weekend than beat Liverpool, because it means that much in north London.
“But I can see what Arteta is trying to do, I can see there’s a plan of closing down and being tighter as a unit, but at the moment he’s dealing with six, seven, eight players he knows he doesn’t really want.
“But, he’s got to keep using them and be cute.
“We’ve got a lot of young players coming in, which is good, but watching the game against Liverpool it was survival football, let’s be honest.
“The two goals were big mistakes from van Dijk and Alisson, but that shows the different culture from Arteta that he wants the forwards to close down, and that wasn’t happening before.
“There is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but the finances, that squad probably needs £100-150million spent on it.”
