Patrick Vieira has told The Times that Arsenal
should reinforce the squad to address the
longstanding lack of physical presence and
leadership in the team.
Vieira, who won the Premier League three times
during his nine years with Arsenal, said he
respects Arsene Wenger's refusal to overpay for
players and believes they are capable of winning
the title this season.
Even so, the Frenchman, now in charge of New
York City FC in MLS, warned that the current
squad is missing the qualities of the 2003-04
"Invincibles," who finished top without losing a
league game.
He said: "We had [Dennis] Bergkamp, who had the
flair; Thierry Henry who could finish and had so
much power; athletic players with the physical
aspect like Sol Campbell; and some really strong
personalities with [Jens] Lehmann or the back
four.
"This Arsenal Invincibles was quite like the French
national team when we won the World Cup in '98,
when we had physical players, players with flair,
players with pace.
"I enjoy watching Arsenal play now. They play
some of the best football in the league. But
they're missing the physical presence, the
personality. In our generation we had some
fantastic players with the ball but the majority of
the players were quite physically strong.
"This last five or six years, Arsenal went more
with this type of mobile, technical players who are
completely different."
Wenger has come under fire for his failure to
invest in recent times, with Granit Xhaka still the
only big-money signing to arrive this summer.
Petr Cech was the only significant arrival ahead of
the 2015-16 campaign, with Mohamed Elneny
joining in January from Basel.
Wenger, though, has criticised the current focus
on expensive signings, sarcastically saying he is
sorry that summer arrival Rob Holding "didn't
cost £55 million," and Vieira has some sympathy
with his former boss.
"You can spend as much as you want, I don't
believe that will guarantee the titles, but the better
players you have the better chance you have," he
said.
"The fans expect Arsene to bring more players in
but if the player's not worth the valuation, he
doesn't want to spend the money. In one way, I
respect that because in the world we live in
there's a lot of pressure to bring in players. He's
being really brave not bringing in players who
don't fit the system he wants to play or aren't of
the value he seeks.
"I quite admire that in the world where some
clubs have so much money, they buy players for
£40m who are worth £10m. But the other side is
that the team is not as good as it used to be. You
need to reinforce the team but he's training every
day with the players and may believe they can do
it.
"I still believe they're going to be in these five
teams who can win the title."
Vieira has previously expressed disappointment
that Wenger did not offer him the chance to coach
at the club when he retired and said it was "a
little bit disappointing" that more former Arsenal
players have not been offered jobs on the staff.
Steve Bould is Wenger's assistant, while Thierry
Henry had a role with the under-18 side before
leaving this summer in favour of his TV punditry
work, but Vieira feels the club's former players are
underrepresented at the Emirates Stadium.
"Players want to do it and, not having the
opportunity, they feel disappointed," he said. "The
perfect example is Ajax when you see all the old
players working for the club. The door's always
open for them. That's nice. But Arsenal don't do it
and I don't know the reason.
"Arsenal are the first team -- with Manchester City
of course -- that I watch. I'm still a big fan of
Arsenal."
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