Mikel Arteta is certainly not being subtle in his messaging.
Having warned his employers before the visit of Liverpool how much of a challenge it would be to emulate Jurgen Klopp's achievements without spinal surgery to address Arsenal's weaknesses down the middle of the park he was not about to let another opportunity pass by without hammering home his point.
Does it concern him that Arsenal may not have the funds to strengthen his hand next season, he was asked. "A big concern. You just have to see how they build those squads.
"There's no magic. You need to improve the squad with quality, quality players. You need bigger squads to compete in this competition."
He shrugged. "There is a challenge."
It has been a consistent theme of Arteta's since before the Premier League resumed. The day before his side travelled to Manchester City and just after Chelsea had activated Timo Werner's £53million release clause he warned "if we stand still that gap will become bigger and bigger".
When the opportunity came up to talk transfers Arteta would emphasise the value of being aggressive in a winter that is expected to be subdued. Immediately after a statement win at Wolves he spoke about how his side didn't have the ability to do what he wanted them to. On July 5 he spoke of a "very, very big" margin for improvement if the club invested.
Compare and contrast with Raul Sanllehi, Arsenal's head of football. He has not spoken since Premier League football returned and his last public comments on transfers came at a fans' forum in early May.
“I don’t think there will be a lot of movement,” he said of the summer window. “The feeling is that this crisis is going to bring a new normality.”
Inevitably it is not in his or Arsenal's interests to project too much optimism, to indicate that there is untapped wealth at the Emirates. Equally the Gunners have not been acting like a club planning on spending big, preaching poverty to their own playing staff when they asked them to take a 12.5% pay cut. Still no other Premier League club has agreed anything more than a deferral.
KSE loaned Arsenal the money to redeem early the bonds issued for the building of the Emirates Stadium, meaning the club now owes money to ownership rather than financial institutions. The club insist that the decision was about funding the day-to-day running of an institution that lost any means of income for months and even now is without several crucial revenue streams.
And yet Arteta must believe that these words can in some way influence Sanllehi, managing director Vinai Venkatesham and the owners. It is fair to assume that the former, more convinced by the day that he has appointed the right head coach, would like to be able to strengthen the squad this summer. The question is where that money can be found.
Arteta can seemingly be trusted to make the most of whatever he is bequeathed for next season.
Such an uncharacteristic win over Liverpool, where Arsenal played with the composure and maturity that is generally associated with their head coach but not their playing squad, only served to heighten the sense that Arteta is worth backing.
It was perhaps the perfect way to make Arteta's point. Play this game over and over again and 72% of the time Liverpool win it, Understat notes. Arsenal showed that they are at the level where they can pounce on an off day from the champions but equally rode their luck mightily, surviving 24 shots on their goal and not drawing a single save from Alisson.
"You only need to look at the difference between the two teams today. The gap is enormous.
"The gap in many areas we cannot improve in two months. But the gap between the accountability, the energy, the commitment and the fight of the two teams now is equal.
"Before it wasn't like this." A telling reminder from Arteta of what he inherited, another message that he has been hammering home, that he has had to perform more than just tactical adjustments but a sweeping change to the very culture of Arsenal. This was a team that didn't compete against teams that they now have a quality deficit against.
Arteta is already hinting that he is reaching the limits of what he can achieve with this squad. It's a fair point to make. How can someone like Granit Xhaka, so imposing and composed last night, improve now that his head coach has fixed so many of the mental issues - concentration, composure - that plagued him earlier in his Arsenal career?
Arteta has what he has at his disposal and that simply isn't enough for a head coach of his ambitions.
"The rest will take some time. At least that, we've got it now. My message to the players is with that we can create something."
His message to Stan and Josh Kroenke, however, is altogether more enticing. This is what I can achieve with the players I have inherited, he seems to be saying. It's not bad, but it could be so much better.
It remains to be seen whether it will grab the Kroenkes and how they might fulfill Arteta's desires. But what Arteta is proving that he will repay any faith shown in him.
