Arsenal legend Ian Wright says head coach Mikel Arteta is fighting an uphill battle in his attempts to turnaround the London club’s fortunes. The Gunners drew their thirteenth league game of the season against Burnley at Turf Moor yesterday, and serious surgery on the first team squad is required.

Even so, Wright is uncertain whether Arteta will be given the transfer funds he needs in order to improve the team in upcoming transfer windows:

“We’ve got a lot of young players coming through that you hope can step up to the mark but we’ve got a lot of players there that aren’t playing to a level where Arsenal should be. That’s the job that Arteta has got, to get them back to that level. Whether or not he can do that with the funds that he’s got, which isn’t much, is going to be a massive, massive ask.”

Arsenal brought in just two loan players in January, despite the club languishing tenth in the table after 25 games. Four consecutive draws have all but extinguished their hopes of Champions League football next season, with the Gunners now ten points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.

Wright is not the only former player to question the club’s transfer dealings with Paul Merson having raised doubts about the quality of Cedric Soares, following his arrival from Southampton.

Arteta will need to make the best of what he has got between now and the end of the season and hope Arsenal’s board loosen the purse strings in the summer.