Ian Wright has warned Arsenal’s board that Mikel Arteta’s side will ‘fizzle out’ this season if new signings are not made in the January transfer window.
The Gunners threw away a two-goal lead against Aston Villa on Saturday to draw 2-2 with Unai Emery’s side.
The result has left Arsenal six points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, who sealed a 2-0 win over Brentford earlier on Saturday following an injury-time double from Darwin Nunez.
Following his side’s draw with Villa, Arteta admitted that his squad is ‘very short’ in attacking options as Raheem Sterling was the only senior attacking player on the bench for the Gunners.
And Wright believes Arsenal will lose even more ground to Liverpool, who also have a game in hand, if they remain inactive in the January transfer window.
‘It’s tough for Arsenal, they’re down to the bare bones with what they’re doing,’ Wright told Premier League Productions.
You look at the bench, there’s not even an attacker on there who has got a Premier League goal this season, it’s very bare.
‘You’ve got a midfielder playing right-back. It’s something that’s not really worked out for us, I think we’ve won one game out of six when Thomas Partey has played there, it’s a vulnerable position for us.
‘Unfortunately for me again, I’ll say I think the manager needs a lot of help from the board now. I don’t think he can do very much more with what he’s got, otherwise there’s no way you’ll continue to use Thomas Partey at right-back if you’ve got options, and he needs options, attacking and defending.
‘We are very close to it being in danger of it fizzling out.
‘In the next couple of games if it doesn’t happen, if they don’t bring someone in to give them a boost because you could see they looked a bit tired.
Mikel Arteta says he is ‘very short’ of attacking options due to injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus (Reuters)
‘I think mentally and physically they look very tired, it’s something I can’t emphasise enough how much we need help now, we need players.’
Asked if Arsenal have any chance of challenging Liverpool if they do not bolster Arteta’s squad in January, Wright replied: ‘Not with the way we’re playing at the moment, not with the players we’ve got, look at the bench.
‘We’ve got Myles Lewis-Skelly coming in at left-back doing unbelievably, I have to mention the summer window bringing in [Mikel] Merino and [Riccardo] Calafiori, unfortunately Calafiori has been injured, Merino… it’s not quite happened for him in a season where we really need people to hit the ground running.
‘Then you’ve got a youngster in Myles Lewis-Skelly who has come in and showed he could play that position, so could we have used that money in a way, we’ve needed a striker for a few years now.
‘Those are the things I’m sure Arsenal fans will be thinking about. But those are the things we have to be thinking about now because if we’ve got any chance of wanting to be in this race something has got to happen in these last couple of weeks of this transfer window because with the players he’s got at this moment and the injuries he’s got, it can’t happen, not with the way Liverpool are playing, not with the way they’re going about their business.’