Arsenal forward Andrei Arshavin insists the club are paying the price for not signing enough players last summer.
The Gunners are still second in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Manchester United, and have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
But Arshavin believes Arsenal's lack of summer signings – along with injuries to Robin van Persie, Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey – leaves them disadvantaged.
The Russian is quoted as saying in The Sun: "I am still of the opinion that to win trophies Arsenal needs more players.
"There is the simple fact that last summer we sold two players and bought only one. So there is an obvious deficit of at least one. Then we lost van Persie, Gibbs and Ramsey for a long time. So for me it is natural we need new players.
"Without the variety of players we have less diversity in attack. That allows our opponents to read our combinations more easily. Finally, it results in less ball possession for us and our defence comes under more pressure.
"The Premier League is very interesting, at least as long as we continue fighting to win it. But without new experienced players, real stars, it will be difficult to achieve success.
"Ideally we need three or four such experienced players and then among our youths there should be guys who are not only good at playing football but have real character."
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The Gunners are still second in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Manchester United, and have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
But Arshavin believes Arsenal's lack of summer signings – along with injuries to Robin van Persie, Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey – leaves them disadvantaged.
The Russian is quoted as saying in The Sun: "I am still of the opinion that to win trophies Arsenal needs more players.
"There is the simple fact that last summer we sold two players and bought only one. So there is an obvious deficit of at least one. Then we lost van Persie, Gibbs and Ramsey for a long time. So for me it is natural we need new players.
"Without the variety of players we have less diversity in attack. That allows our opponents to read our combinations more easily. Finally, it results in less ball possession for us and our defence comes under more pressure.
"The Premier League is very interesting, at least as long as we continue fighting to win it. But without new experienced players, real stars, it will be difficult to achieve success.
"Ideally we need three or four such experienced players and then among our youths there should be guys who are not only good at playing football but have real character."
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