Arsenal's need for further transfers has been reiterated by club legend Paul Merson, despite a promising start in the league.
The Gunners swept Crystal Palace aside with surprising ease given the normally treacherous journey to Selhurst Park and it demonstrated the strength in which Mikel Arteta's side possesses this season after adding seasoned winners Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to their ranks.
With highly-rated Marquinhos and Fabio Vieira also on board for this campaign, there is the feeling that it is the best prepared Arsenal have been for quite some time going into a season, but Arteta and his staff know there's still plenty of work to be done in order to make Arsenal a serious contender this season.
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Even with Vieira's addition they still look light in central midfield, and Jesus may be versatile but the Brazilian has never played more than 2,100 minutes in a league season for Manchester City, something he will have to change this season if a real push on is to happen for Arsenal.
It's something that former Gunners attacking midfielder Merson thinks could be of hindrance to the squad. Writing in his SportsKeeda column, he said, "the front four look lively for Arsenal. They've got everything between them and if they stay fit, Arsenal are going to have a good Premier League season. If one of them gets injured, however, they're in trouble."
With Gabriel Martinelli currently in the side due to an injury for Emile Smith Rowe, there isn't as much depth to the attack as Arteta would like. There is flexibility to his front-line and Eddie Nketiah still to be added into the frame, but with Reiss Nelson's credentials and future at this level uncertain, there's no surprise in the strong links to wingers Cody Gakpo, Yeremy Pino and Moussa Diaby as Edu looks to give Arteta the platform for real success at the Emirates.
With high-class depth behind the frightening front-four, Arsenal could be in serious business this season, but that makes the remaining three weeks of the window extremely important, and Merson has plenty of reason to be optimistic if things are sorted out by the end of September: "I thought Arsenal were outstanding in their first 20 minutes against Crystal Palace. I was very impressed by them at times last week, and I think they should be able to win this game easily," he said.
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