Arsene Wenger says his Arsenal team have shown enough at the business end of this campaign to suggest they will be genuine title contenders next season.

After a shaky start to the season, the north Londoners have finished strongly and they are now in pole position to finish as runners-up to Chelsea.

According to Wenger, they will be ready to lay down a strong challenge to the Blues next season.

“We can win [the title], of course we can win,” he added. “We have done it before. Manchester United have done it. Plenty of teams have done it.”

The Frenchman feels those that criticise the Gunners’ style of play are over-reacting.

He added: “It is how well you play, the kind of game you play. For example, you don’t question Barcelona about the way they play football.

“But if they start to lose games you will question ‘Are they not too naive?’. But when they win you don’t question it of course.”

Arsenal are 1.27 in the match betting to defeat Swansea at the Emirates on Monday.

Garry Monk’s team got the better of the Gunners at the Liberty Stadium earlier in the season and are 10.61 in the match betting to complete the double.

Wenger says a team’s philosophy only counts for so much, with the final say inevitably resting with each individual performance.

He told reporters: “You cannot play 38 games in the same convincing style. You need to have a balance in your team so that if you are not at a level of fluency you can still win the game.
“Then most of the time it is the individual talent of the players.

“You have to accept that at some level – unfortunately – the game becomes an individual sport.”