Arsenal legend, Robert Pires, reckons that Arsene Wenger’s current side have more quality than the Invincibles but they need to become warriors if they’re going to win titles.

It’s a bold statement but Pires claims that Arsenal’s current Premier League starting XI have more quality on paper than the Invincibles, which boasted the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and of course Le Bob, all at the tops of their game.

All Wenger’s current side needs, he says, is a bit of fight about them.

“I think this team have more quality than my teams,” said Pires, who made 189 league appearances for the Gunners.

“Even in 2003/04. But they need more character, more spirit, more warriors. That comes from the heart.

“In my teams we had [Patrick] Vieira, Ray Parlour, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown, Gilberto Silva, Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp was a leader with his quality.

“And even Freddie Ljungberg was a warrior.

“I’m not a warrior but it comes naturally to people like Patrick, like Adams. You need the mix between that and the quality. That’s very important.”

While I get where Pires is coming from and I also get that the 44-year-old, who still trains at London Colney pretty often, has an unshakable bond with the boss, which prevents him from saying anything negative about the team, I can’t bring myself to agree that we’ve got even more quality now than we did with the Invincibles.

Sure, having confidence, heart and fight was part of going the entire season unbeaten in the league in 2003/04. But you had to have the quality to back it up and at that time we had it in spades. Not only that but all the players seemed to hit their peak at once.

Not only does Wenger’s current side lack the guts that the Invincibles had, they’re just nowhere near as good.