Since the turn of the year, the Gunners have won 36 of their 54 competitive games, which also resulted in trophy success as the club retained both the Community Shield and the FA Cup, and manager Arsène Wenger believes Arsenal have become more mature and reliable throughout 2015.
The Gunners sit top of the Premier League going into the New Year, and Wenger is confident his side will achieve even more success in 2016 due to the continued progression at the club.
Speaking at his news conference on Wednesday morning, Wenger reflected on the previous year.
From January 1 to December 31 we were consistent and have improved our results.
The team has grown in stature, is more mature, more reliable and we won the FA Cup and the Community Shield. We are in a strong position in the Premier League so hopefully 2016 will be better.
Many believe this to be the best opportunity Arsenal have had to win the Premier League in the last 10 years. In previous seasons, Arsenal haven’t been able to see their title challenge through to the end, however, Wenger believes his team have everything needed this season to sustain a title challenge.
We are mature enough and we have the requested quality to fight and compete. The most important thing is to feel, at the end of the season, that we have given absolutely everything to be successful. After that, if somebody has been better than us, we will accept it, but we want to fight to show that we have a chance.
Following a 4-0 Boxing Day defeat at Southampton, Arsenal bounced back in the best way possible – a 2-0 victory against Bournemouth on Monday, and Wenger believes the public’s opinion of the current campaign will continue to change throughout the season.
The public opinion is not always stable, it changes a lot. It is always linked with the final result. We have to rise above that and show that we can deal with it.
I believe we have to be guided by playing better football and being a real team in every game and show that we can be competitive.
We can have great solidarity in every single game and after that we have a chance. You cannot rule us out after 19 games. We have chance and we want to fight for it. Everybody wants to predict who will win it at halfway but even for the most intelligent people [that is] impossible.
In what has so far been one of the most competitive Premier League seasons in history, Wenger believes the title could be won by a number of teams, however, his sole focus is what his team can do and the performances they can give.
Mathematically you cannot rule out anyone down to Manchester United.
Can Liverpool still fight for it? I don’t know. We have a difficult programme and we have to focus on ourselves more than we have to look at who will be our main threat. We have to focus on our performances.
City are the favourites still because they might have the most glamorous potential and they are not far behind. After that, Tottenham are not far behind and Leicester are still there after 19 games. You have to respect that and they also have no European competition. The gap is not big enough, nine points is not big enough to say that anyone is out of it.
