Exclusive: Emmanuel Petit claims Arsenal won't challenge Man City even with Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz

Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit claimed the Gunners still need more signings to challenge Manchester City in the Premier League next season.

Mikel Arteta's side have been extremely busy in the early stages of the summer window.

Having already secured the signing of Kai Havertz for £65million, this week it emerged that the north Londoners had agreed a £105million fee with West Ham for Declan Rice and a £38.5million deal to sign Ajax defender Jurrien Timber.

Indeed, the fee for Rice smashes Arsenal’s transfer record - the £72million they paid Lille for Nicolas Pepe in 2019. The deal will also be just shy of the British transfer record, which is the £106.8million Chelsea offered for Enzo Fernandez in January.

Once the Rice and Timber deals are finalised Arsenal’s spending this summer will have surpassed £200million. But according to Petit, who won with Premier League and FA Cup double with Arsenal in 1997/98, Arteta still needs to make additions to his squad to compete against City.

Petit on Arsenal’s transfer business

While Petit heaped praise on Rice, he claimed that Arsenal still lacked the strength in depth to compete against City for the Premier League title.

Speaking exclusively to SPORTbible, courtesy of DAZN Bet, the ‘98 World Cup winner said: “[Rice] is a very good addition to the Arsenal squad, but they’ve got to bring in more players if they want to compete for the title, or at least, reduce the gap with Manchester City.

“It’s one step further but they need to bring more players in.

“If you want to compete for the best prizes in England or Europe you need to put the money on the table. It’s as simple as that.

“It’s been like that for ages in football, but it’s more obvious in the modern game.

“Spending £200million to increase the quality of your team is one thing, but is it enough for Arsenal to compete with Manchester City right now? I think they’re still short.

“I think they can compete for the podium, but are they good enough, are they strong enough to beat Manchester City right now? City have won five titles in the last six years, they are there every season, they spend a lot of money on players.”

Topics: Football, Transfers, Arsenal, Manchester City, Premier League

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.