Thaindian News

London, Mar 24 (ANI): Arsenal striker Andrey Arshavin has said that he is not convinced about the club’s chances of winning any title this season.

The Gunners have battled back from devastating bad luck and injuries to stand two points off leaders Manchester United. Not only that, they also have to play their Champions League quarterfinal against favourites Barcelona.

But Arshavin is not convinced his side is up to the challenge, and insists the club is paying the price for not signing enough players last summer.

Thomas Vermaelen was the only pre-season arrival in a 10 million pounds deal from Ajax while Sol Campbell signed on a free transfer in January, The Sun reports.

Yet despite a string of injuries to stars like Robin Van Persie, William Gallas, Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs, Arsenal are still second in the table.

Arshavin said: “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, 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,” he said.

Arshavin said he has yet to reach the heights of other overseas players such as Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres or Didier Drogba. (ANI)