Ian Wright has insisted that Arsenal can still make the top four this season, but they need their January signings to click straight away.
The Gunners have already completed a deal to bring Henrikh Mkhitaryan in from Manchester United in return for Alexis Sanchez’s signature, and are strongly linked with deals to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Jonny Evans at present.
The three players would be expected to go straight into the first-team could the North London side manage to complete those deals, and the trio would significantly improve our options for the campaign.
Our season is in need of saving at present, having fallen to five points off the top four, and our best bet on playing Champions League football looks like winning the Europa League, although there is still a long way to go in the competition.
Ian Wright has now claimed that we still could snipe our rivals and beat them to the qualification places, but our new signings this month will have no time to settle in slowly.
“Arsenal could make the top four but all of their signings would have to hit the ground running,” Wright said on The Debate. “But of course Arsenal can.
“They have got the quality to be able to do it but those players will have to hit the ground running.”
The former England and Arsenal striker went onto slam his former club for allowing the saga to run on so long, but is happy with the fact they managed to get a ‘top player’ in exchange.
“It’s terrible business from Arsenal, they should have let Sanchez go last summer, collected the money and went from there,” he added.
“It’s bad business letting Sanchez leave as they have done but the Mkhitaryan deal is the best of a bad situation.
“Mkhitaryan is a top player. I don’t think we saw the best of him at Manchester United but I do believe Arsenal have got a good player.
“He’s still trying to find his feet in England but I’ve seen enough of him when he has played to know he has quality.
“We know Jose Mourinho can get the hump with some players but I hope he can come to Arsenal, a much friendlier environment in terms of management and players, and hopefully he can thrive.”
Do we still believe we can make the top four? How many more signings do we need to add this month to stand a chance of overhauling two or more of our rivals in the table?
Pat J