Thierry Henry believes Arsenal need to finish in the top four and bring in some top talent in the summer in order to truly challenge next season.

The message from the Arsenal legend is pretty much the same as many others’ over the past decade. We need to add some top quality to this side in order to challenge for the Premier League title. Although we have added quality over the past few seasons, namely Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech in that order, and this has done the job of placating the fans temporarily, it’s never been quite enough.

“I’m sure if you ask Arsene or any of the fans or players if they want to finish only in the top four they will say ‘no we want to win the league’, because it comes with the shirt and it comes with the badge that you have on your heart,” he said.

“But now you have to save the top four. Are the fans, the players and the manager happy with that? No, but being in the Champions League is vital for Arsenal Football Club, and if you want to build for next season you need to be in the Champions League to attract good players.

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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – MARCH 18: Thierry Henry watches the FA Youth Cup Semi Final, First Leg match between Manchester City and Arsenal at the City Football Academy on March 18, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

“Now who is going to come? That is always a tricky question because who do you get?

“Who are you going to get that will get the goals to help you win the title? Not the goals every weekend, but a guy that can score when you need to score, the guy who needs one opportunity to score to put you 1-0 up.

“Where are you going to get a Sergio Aguero, a (Robert) Lewandowski or a (Luis) Suarez from?”

He continued, “I go back to what Arsenal said that the team does not need many changes and if Sanchez can perform the way he is at the minute, and we have Mesut Ozil carrying on giving the assists he has been giving since the beginning of the season, then you would like to think a striker who can score [can make all the difference].

“But it’s going to be a very busy summer for Arsene because you need to get that excitement back so that the fans can look forward to something next season.”

It’s a sad state of affairs when the answer seems so clear and although Henry acknowledges players of Sergio Aguero’s calibre aren’t exactly falling out of the sky, not adding top quality at all is concerning. Hopefully, the backlash from this season will trigger a watershed moment for Wenger but if it hasn’t happened by now, I don’t hold out much hope.