Ray Parlour has spoken about Arsenal’s confidence going into next season, backed our young guns to do well and admitted that we do need a bit of luck on our side.

The former Gunner believes that we do need another couple of signings in order to not just challenge next season but to instill some confidence into the team. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that at all.

“There’s always a positive vibe [about Arsenal]. You’ve got to be confident and believe in yourself as a player,” Parlour said.

Parlour also backed Alex Iwobi and Theo Walcott to do well. Although I’m sure most of us would only put our money on one of them to really shine during the 2016/17 season, we have to be open minded. Theo has had a good pre-season so who’s to say that won’t continue this time?

“But we know how many quality sides there are in the league so it’s going to be difficult for Arsenal,” he admitted.

“But they’ve got some good young players coming through — [Alex] Iwobi really impressed me, he scored in the first half [against City], and Theo [Walcott] looked lively. They’ve got a very good side.”

Luck can be a massive part of winning the title. Just look at Leicester. Not to take too much away from their achievement – they won fair and square – but they had over double the amount of penalties that everyone else got. They were also almost always scoring goals off the inside of the post, which you know would have bounced out for us.

“It’s a long hard season, you need the luck along the way. They’re still waiting for a couple more signings that would really make the fans feel more confident.

“Certainly Xhaka’s a good player, he’ll bring more steel to the midfield. They’ve relied on Francis Coquelin a lot for that. I’m sure there’s things going on behind the scenes, you know how long these deals take now. John Stones was expected three or four weeks ago, Paul Pogba was very similar. They take a lot more time now.

“It’s very difficult at times, with clubs not wanting to sell, agents’ fees, all this sort of stuff. It’s a lot more complicated.

“If they can get the right deal, the right player in to make them stronger, obviously they’ll have more chance. The bigger squad you have, the bigger chance you have of winning the Premier League or reaching the latter stages of the Champions League.”

Sigh.