After Arsenal sealed a spot in the top-four of the English Premier League and with it a place in the Champions League playoffs, former Manchester United defender and current media pundit Gary Neville has urged the North London club to improve by bringing players in the summer transfer window to challenge for the title next season.
Arsenal needed to pick up a win against Newcastle in the final weekend to ensure a top-four place and they did just that with a 1-0 win, courtesy a goal from Laurent Koscielny.
Neville, while admitting the Gunners did really well to leapfrog Tottenham in the final standings, believes now is the perfect time to make a step up for next season.
"It's a good time to keep perspective," he told Sky Sports. "They're celebrating -- and rightly so -- but let's not forget they finished fourth.
"This is Arsenal, who have set a standard in these last 15 years under Arsene Wenger and they've now got to go for it. They have got to improve next season.
"For two years on the bounce they've shown great character and spirit. We wrote them off after the Arsenal vs Tottenham game at White Hart Lane. We thought this was going to be the year where Arsenal fell short.
"Everything changed after that. Tottenham helped them by losing at home to Fulham and giving them a little bit of impetus.
"Arsenal have done really well for the level they are at, but as Theo Walcott says, they now need to be challenging for a title."
Neville was all praise for Wenger, who has kept Arsenal in the top four all along despite having to manage on an extremely strict budget, and seeing some of his big players leave the club season after season; but according to the former England international, the time is now ripe for a change in strategy in the transfer market this summer.
"They're all going to be going after a group of players that there are not enough of," he said. "They're not the biggest payers in the world and are they going to change that? They're not the biggest payers of fees or wages.
"It's all about the club that gets out of the blocks quickest in transfers and goes early. You've got to get your business done early. Don't think it can wait until August and then pick somebody up.
"You've got to go early in June and by the end of June you've got to have the three players you want and if anybody else comes then fair enough. I think Arsenal have got to go hard and early.
"They've spent £9 million ($14 million) net in 10 years and maintained the level of consistency of getting in the Champions League.
"They've built a football stadium, they're paying off their debt and they're nearly there. If they move up now it will look like one of the most magnificent managerial performances when you look back in history.
"Half the Arsenal fans are annoyed because they think they should be doing more and should be doing better, but of all the madness and debt that surrounds football, what they have done is absolutely the right thing.
"What they now need to do, having nearly paid off their debt, is they need to go now. I think he knows, Arsene Wenger, that moment is now."
