After a disastrous opening match against West Ham, Martin Keown believes Arsene Wenger needs to make a marquee signing and soon.

The former Gunner used the signing of Mesut Ozil as an example of how we responded to a similar loss two years ago.

“The last time they [Arsenal] lost on the opening day was against Aston Villa in 2013,” he said. “Two weeks later Arsene Wenger spent £40m on Mesut Ozil, a signing that really galvanised the club and the fans.”

He added, “After West Ham there is renewed desire for Wenger to spend big but he will know if there is a player who can improve his team.”

Keown knows as well as anybody, if Wenger is making moves to sign a big player, we’ll be the last to know. When we signed Ozil, the time between the rumour breaking, to us actually signing the midfielder was a matter of days. Keown believes it’ll be similar if we’re moving for another big player this summer.

“The difference is he doesn’t like to shout about it from the rooftops,” Keown continued. “It’s hardly a vote of confidence in your current players if you start talking up others you’d like to buy.”

Although we keep getting linked to Karim Benzema, and the rumours won’t seem to go away, Wenger hasn’t seemed all that keen on him. However, for all we know, he could be working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring the Real Madrid man to north London.

“It’s no secret Arsenal could do with more striking options,” the pundit went on. “Olivier Giroud is a good link man and an underestimated goalscorer but against West Ham too much of the play went through the middle. 

“That made Arsenal’s attack predictable. Arsenal’s set-piece defending was poor but can improve and Petr Cech will get better.”

As a former defender himself, Koewn had some choice words of our back four.

“The defenders do need to show more desire,” he stated. “They have to really love keeping clean sheets.”