Former Arsenal defender Viv Anderson says Arsene Wenger needs to find a 'new Patrick Vieira' if they're to make the next step.
Anderson believes that his old club's failure to find an adequate successor to Vieira is part of the reason for their failure to win any silverware for five years.
"I have said for two or three years," Anderson told the Sunday Mirror. "They have never replaced Patrick Vieira. They need a central midfielder that dictates like he used to do - like Roy Keane and Bryan Robson used to do. Okay, so Mathieu Flamini did a decent job but he never had the presence of Vieira. He was so key to them.
"That holding midfield player job is so important. If he does his job well, he can make the others play and lead by example. People have always under-estimated that kind of player. You look at all the successful clubs and invariably they have one."
