Theo Walcott insists Arsenal should've moved quicker to pursue Pedro Neto - who has ended up at Chelsea.
The Blues landed the former Wolves winger in the summer, signing him for £51million. Neto had long been tipped to move to a top Premier League side having excelled at Molineux and those at Stamford Bridge were first to act.
Neto scored his first league goal for Chelsea as they held Arsenal to a draw on Sunday. The Portuguese winger came in off the wing and played a neat one-two in the middle of the pitch before firing in an excellent strike from more than 20 yards.
The stalemate means that the Gunners lose more ground in the title race, even at this early stage of the season, and their resources have been tested in recent weeks due to injuries and suspension. In attack Mikel Arteta is reliant on a handful of players and Walcott believes Neto would've been the ideal addition.
He said on Match of the Day 2: "When we talk about Neto – he’s the sort of player who Arsenal maybe could have signed to have given that competition to others players. That’s kind of what they need right now, to provide that competition."
Arsenal have now not won in four league games - drawing two and losing two. Several of those games have come against top opposition with the Gunners enduring a tough run of fixtures and Walcott believes they will welcome the domestic pause.
He added: "They’ve had a period of time without their leader Martin Odegaard, they’ve played six of last season’s top ten and five of them have been away. They are now at at stage where they don’t want Liverpool to get too far away – that’s for certain – but they have their main players back. I know (Bukayo) Saka and Declan (Rice) limped off but they’ve got the international break now, I feel it’s come at a good time for them."
Much has also been made of Arsenal's lack of potency in the final third. That has partly been impacted by Odegaard's absence with the Norwegian their most creative player. Their lack of goals though has shone a light on their decision not to sign a striker in the summer.
Former Gunner Paul Merson is adamant that the north Londoners need to embark on a lengthy winning run, sooner rather than later, if they want to haul themselves back into the title race.
He said: "You see from the goal when Odegaard nicks the ball. It's only because of his intelligence and his vision. There was only one pass on and that was out wide. He's a clever footballer. He's only good for Arsenal. They've got to get on a run. They can reel off five or six wins. They'll have to do that."