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Ray Parlour has urged Arsenal to support their manager Mikel Arteta financially in the upcoming summer transfer window, drawing comparisons to the way Frank Lampard is being backed at Chelsea.

Arteta took charge of the Gunners back in December as Unai Emery’s successor and previously worked as a coach at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.

Despite sitting ninth in the Premier league table, the north London club are still in the mix to secure a European spot for next season and there has definitely been signs of improvements on the pitch.

Arteta has put his faith in a string of youngsters that are impressing at the Emirates Stadium, but ultimately they could do with some more proven quality and dipping into the transfer market would make sense.

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Parlour wants his former club to get behind their manager by allowing him funds to really improve the squad in the summer.

He has referenced the way Chelsea are backing their manager Lampard, who already has Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech added to his squad for next season.

“They (Arsenal) have got to take a gamble now. If you think you’ve got the right man as the manager, a little bit like Frank Lampard at Chelsea,” Parlour told talkSPORT.

“I think Roman Abramovich looks at it and says right Frank is going to take this club forward now I’ve got to give him funds, got to buy him better players, got to give him a chance to try compete with Manchester City and Liverpool.

“That’s what Arsenal have got to do. They’ve got to compete to try get in that top four again. If they don’t do that and don’t spend money they won’t get in the top four. I certainly believe Arteta has shown enough to give him the opportunity and give him financial help to try get back to that top four.

TBR’s View:

Arteta has definitely managed to get Arsenal fans behind him during his short stint in charge so far, as there is an identity on the pitch to their style of play and there are improvement.

The Spanish boss does deserve to be given a transfer kitty in the upcoming window, but whether those funds are made available to him remains to be seen.

Arsenal have shown on their day they have a group that can compete against the league’s best, but over the course of an entire season their squad doesn’t look strong enough and they are missing one or two marquee players.