Arsenal have ‘everything’ to win titles this season – but Owen Hargreaves questions if they are ‘nasty’ enough

Arsenal also added further reinforcements to their defence this summer in the form of Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie, while the performances of Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber have also been impressive this season.

Hargreaves, a Champions League winner with both Bayern Munich and Manchester United, believes that with such defensive prowess, Arsenal have everything they need to conquer Europe and England this season.

“Technically, tactically, Saliba is one of the best. I still think Gabriel is the leader, I think he is the top one in there, but I think these guys are all developing at the same speed,” said Hargreaves before Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League league phase match with Olympiacos on TNT Sports.

“One thing I would say about the generation of Tony Adams and Martin (Keown), they were a bit nastier, these guys are all lovely lads and they are all top players, sometimes to win you’ve got to be a bit nasty and I think that is very important, sometimes playing nice football doesn’t always win, you’ve got to be nasty.

“I think these guys have all the ingredients to be two of the best and I think with the goalkeeper as well, I think (David) Raya is a brilliant goalkeeper, they have got four really good full-backs, so they have everything.”

Aside from defensive signings, Arsenal addressed other key areas of weakness last year, with Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke all joining to improve their attacking threat and provide genuine depth behind Bukayo Saka.

Those additions have given Arsenal a competitive squad in every position, something Hargreaves believes is only going to help them get better this season.

“All the top teams, there’s competition for places, so if you don’t play well, you’re not playing,” said Hargreaves.

“(Martin) Odegaard was undroppable, Saka was undroppable, Kai (Havertz), if he was fit, he was going to play. All of a sudden, they have got these crazy options now, and basically, the guys who are going to play are the guys who are playing well. End of.

“If you produce the goods, you play. And I think that creates a super competitive environment, which you only get with competition.”

One thing Hargreaves did notice with the Arsenal squad was the lack of experience in winning silverware.

Only injured forward Gabriel Jesus has experience of winning the Premier League from his time at Manchester City, and Hargreaves added: “Everybody is on the same level. They don’t have anybody who has won, not really. You look at teams historically and they’ve had generations of guys.

“Think back to that Man Utd team, you had (Ryan) Giggs, (Paul) Scholes, (Edwin) van der Sar, but then you had the youngsters Cristiano (Ronaldo), (Wayne) Rooney, (Carlos) Tevez.

“It might be the first time for most of them, sometimes I think maybe you need a guy who’s been there and done it. That’s maybe one thing Arsenal could have addressed in the window.”