Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admits that he needs to get into the Champions League to sign better players.

The Gunners are among several teams that are trying to find a route into the top four in the Premier League.

Given they are out of the Europa League, the league is their only route into the elite European competition.

And Arteta admitted Champions League qualification would impact their summer transfer plans.

"The damage caused by the club not being in the Champions League for the third season is really big," said Arteta to reporters.

"Financially the impact is enormous because the structure of this club is built to be in the Champions League and you can sustain that for one year or two, but then after you have to start making decisions.

"So, we will have to make decisions one way or the other depending on the scenario we find ourselves, whether we are in the Champions League, Europa League or nowhere near that. And we'll have a very clear plan of what we want to do and depending where we are we have to act like this.

"It will be difficult but this is the situation we are in now. We've been in that situation because we haven't performed as well as the other top four clubs have been doing.

"That's the reality and we have to face that reality face to face and try to make the best decisions. We don't have margin for error with those decisions so they have to be very thorough and clear processes of where we have to improve and how we are going to do that and then go forward with no excuses."

Asked if qualifying would make it easier to retain the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka, Arteta said: "I think it is a no-brainer.

"Every player in the world wants to play Champions League and if you talk about having this option on the table, players are in a much more open way to join this club or to renew their contract or to convince anybody because we want to be in that competition."