Former Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires has warned that the club risk getting left behind if they do not begin to splash the cash on new players.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has often been criticised for his apparent refusal to match his main Premier League rivals in the transfer market, despite the big-money signings of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Granit Xhaka in recent years.

However, Pires believes that there is no option but to dig even deeper in football nowadays, and stressed that the fans want to see more high-profile players arrive at the club.

"I think most importantly, it's for the fans so you need to buy good players," he told Natacha Tannous.

"But you need to spend a lot of money because this is the new football. For this point, we need to build a relation with the club and, of course, with the manager.

"I don't know what's happening with the future for me but these are my plans to be more involved with Arsenal."

Arsenal currently sit fifth in the Premier League table, although they do have a game in hand over fourth-placed Liverpool, who they trail by two points.