Former Arsenal captain Gilberto Silva has jumped to the defence of football chief Edu.

Gilberto, who was part of the Arsenal team that clinched the Premier League title in Tottenham's own backyard back in 2004, has compared Edu's current approach to that of his former boss Wenger - who is widely recognised as the club's greatest ever manager and put an extra emphasis on building for the future by blooding young players.

“I think the hardest thing nowadays is to find the right balance to reinforce your squad," Gilberto told Goal.

“You can bring in the best player in the world and spend a lot of money, but what about the other positions? Not only for the moment, but for the future.

“If you look back at our time with Arsene, he always recruited younger players because at that time he had a squad that gave him this opportunity because he had a foundation.

“What I see now is they are recruiting players for the future as well. Not only for the moment. They need results of course, but they are thinking medium to long term.

“Of course it is important to worry about what we need to do now to keep going and to get the best results, but there are no guarantees.

“Even if they change their policy and bring in two or three top players. What guarantee is there of results? You never know."