Monday 25 May 2015 08:25, UK
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is delighted with the progress his side have made this season and insists they are ready to fight for the Premier League title.
Wenger’s men rounded off their league campaign with a 4-1 victory against West Bromwich Albion to wrap up third place and a direct route into the group stage of next season’s Champions League.
And the Arsenal boss, who saw his side rack up eight straight Premier League wins in the second half of the season, believes his side are ready for an assault on the title next season.
“We feel we’ve made progress,” Wenger told Sky Sports. “First of all we have qualified directly in a competitive environment with the all the teams that have top quality.
“Since January we feel we have moved forward again and we can show that again next season from the start. We are ready to fight for the Premier League with everybody else.”
With next week’s FA Cup final in the back of his mind, Wenger shuffled his pack for the visit of West Brom and the move paid dividends, with Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere both making excellent contributions from the start.
Walcott fired a first-half hat-trick, while Wilshere capped his excellent display with a goal, and Wenger was delighted to see the England pair back to their best.
“It’s very pleasing because they had been punished a lot through injuries,” he added. “They’ve slowly come back. You could see in recent weeks they’ve come slowly back to their best and today they’ve shown that.
And with Walcott’s contract at the Emirates only having one more year to run, Wenger was asked whether his hat-trick was timely reminder ahead of scheduled talks.
He said: “I’ve known for a long time [what he is capable of]. People forget sometimes how much time it takes when you have been out for a year.
“Sometimes the players get even better when they have to wait when they are injured because they analyse the game. But you need to come back to your sharpness and the competitive side of the game. He has that now.”
