Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira has claimed that his former side are currently too soft to be considered serious contenders for the Premier League title.

The Gunners have not won the English top flight since 2004 when the Frenchman skippered the North London outfit through the campaign unbeaten.

Vieira, who is now in charge of New York City FC in Major League Soccer, believes that Arsene Wenger needs to bring in some more powerful players if Arsenal are to end their 13-year title hoodoo.

"In our generation we had some fantastic players with the ball but the majority of the players were quite physically strong," he told The Mirror. "We had Dennis Bergkamp, who had the flair, and Thierry Henry who could finish and had so much power, but also players who were athletic with the physical aspect like Sol Campbell, some really strong personalities with Jens Lehmann, David Seaman or the back four.

"You had this Arsenal Invincibles which was quite like the French national team when we won the World Cup in 1998, when we had physical players, players with flair, players with pace, it was quite similar of that team. Now when I watch the Arsenal I will enjoy watching them play, they play some of the best football in the league.

"But I have a feeling that they are missing something and this something is the physical presence, the personality. This last five-six years Arsenal went more with this type of mobile, technical players who are completely different. Arsenal are always going to be one of the teams who can win the title because of the way they play but at the same time they will be disappointed losing games they should win."

Arsenal have begun the 2016-17 season with one point from their first two games, having followed up their opening-game defeat to Liverpool with a goalless draw against Leicester City.