Andrey Arshavin has delivered a damning assessment of his lightweight team-mates, warning that Arsenal need to spend big to compete with their Big Four rivals.
The Russia forward has savaged the side for being soft at the back, too short to cope with set pieces and desperately lacking a focal point up front.
Back-to-back 3-0 capitulations against Chelsea in the Premier League and Manchester City in the Carling Cup, as well as defeats earlier this season by City and Manchester United, have left Arshavin, 28, in despair.
Didier Drogba of Chelsea scores the opening goal against Arsenal
'The fact that we have lost against out direct rivals this season signifies that we are not very good,' he said. 'We played good football, but that is not enough. We score a lot of goals, but we always let in one or more.'
At 5ft 7in, Arshavin has his own physical limitations, but he is not the only player who is weak in the air.
'We are not good on set pieces, and that is bound up with the fact that we don't have many tall players,' he said.Every other team has an advantage over us in this area. Chelsea were much stronger than us when it came to physical power. Had we possessed a tall player, things would have been better for us, especially in attack. We had nobody capable of holding on to the ball.'
But the £12million signing has not lost faith in his manager, saying: 'What can we, and must we, change? Only Arsene Wenger knows.'