Arsenal can now move forward after their star striker, Robin Van Persie, signed a new contract with the club. There had been rumours that Van Persie was on his way out of Arsenal after he was said to be frustrated by the reluctance of Arsene Wenger to play him on a more regular basis.

Van Persie has reportedly signed a deal that could keep him at Arsenal until he is well into his 30s and he is now set to get a pay rise to the level of somewhere around £80,000 a week. This is good and positive news for Arsenal because it means they are keeping one of the club’s best players.

A lot has been said since the close of last season that Arsenal needed to make good a massive gulf in class between themselves and the best clubs in Europe. The only way they were going to do this is by firstly trying to get their best players to sign on at the club and commit their future to the cause.

Arsenal fans will be hoping that other players will follow suit but it is unlikely that Emanuel Adebayor will be sticking around for much longer if a bid from AC Milan does actually make the table. He has made no secret of his desire to stay at the North London club, unlike Van Persie, and will be hoping that a repeat of last year does not happen where he was forced to stay at Arsenal as a deal could not be concluded in time.

Van Persie said: “I have been at the club for five years now and there is a really great feeling at Arsenal. We have a top class manager, a squad full of superb young players and brilliant supporters.”

Van Persie joins Arsenal’s captain, Cesc Fabregas, in stating his intent on remaining at the club and trying to help them get back to an era when they were by far and away the best football side in Europe. Many Arsenal fans will still look back on the era when they were possibly the most feared side in the world and the news of Van Persie’s commitment means that are one step closer to re-achieving this.

What Arsenal now need to do is not conform to what they always do each season in the transfer window, sit on their heels. They have some very good players in the squad and the addition of Andrey Arshavin last January was a superb and clever signing. Arsenal need some big and high calibre players to come into the team.

It has been all too obvious in recent matches that they are missing players that can boss and dominate the midfield, allowing the more creative influences to bomb forward and wreak havoc in the opposition defence. No doubt Wenger probably has a long list of player targets that he is working on but he has to realise that his philosophy of blooding youth in the Premier League needs to be tampered with and helped along because at the moment it is not working.

The other danger for Arsenal is that if they do not act and act quickly then they stand to lose ground to a lot of other sides in the league next season. Manchester City are making huge strides under the leadership of Mark Hughes as they continue to assemble a hugely impressive squad, which on paper looks like it could push for a Champions League spot. This is all not to mention the number of talented managers there are in the Premier League, all trying to break into the top six. For example David Moyes at Everton and Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa will be doing every thing they can to try and take ground away from Arsenal.

So the question is, how long will it be until Wenger gets going and starts bringing in some players that the club has needed for a long time? The answer is unknown but it is something that he is going to have to do soon or Arsenal risk having their worst season in the Premier League since it began, next year.

Arsenal have a lot of young and hungry players that are all very grateful to be at the club they are. However, the point is that this will only take the club forwards to a set point and sooner or later they will be found out on a weekly basis. The news of Van Persie’s commitment should be a sign to the manager and the entire club that Arsenal need to act and show that they mean business.

On their day they are still the best football side to watch in Europe as the passing and play links up perfectly, but the point is that these days are not consistent enough to have any impact on a big competition. Until the right players are brought in, Arsenal will have no chance of making a good go of success. There are too many clubs at the moment better positioned than they are and if they have not realised this yet then there are some very naïve people running the football club.

There has never been a better time for Arsenal to lay out one or two markers of intent and they need to stop trying to buy players when they are in their teens and turning them into the next Thierry Henry, it is not going to happen. The time has come for Arsenal to get out the chequebook and sign three or four high calibre and experienced players.

If they do this then they stand a chance of actually hanging onto their top four place next season but if they do not and Wenger continues with his current vision, which clearly is not working, then Arsenal will slowly slip down the Premier League table and eradicate any immediate chance of knowing what it tastes like to lift a trophy again. It is a sad scenario but it is one that will happen.