The Gunners were the form team for the last couple of months of the campaign, winning 9 out of their last 12 league encounters. In fact, having collected 29 points out of a possible 36, they would be sitting pretty at the top of the table, three points clear of Chelsea.

However, league positions are not determined only by the final two months, and Arsenal need to perform consistently throughout the season to have a chance of lifting the title. The Gunners poor start in recent seasons has culminated in them challenging for the fourth and final Champions League spot, rather than for the title.

They do have one positive though, if you want to look at it that way, as none of their star players will be involved in a protracted transfer saga, which has the ability to derail the start of the season. Arsenal have been embroiled in some transfer sagas for too many times in recent season, which has resulted in them starting the league slowly and playing catch-up from the very first month.

Wenger knows it could be his last season at the Emirates if he fails to deliver a trophy. The North London side also have a huge transfer kitty to spend big this summer, and are widely touted to strengthen in the defensive and forward areas.

They can really challenge the Manchester clubs if they can buy a quality centre-half as well as a defensive midfielder, who can shield the back-four. Even though they have scored a lot of goals this season, they do require a prolific striker, who can score 30 goals a season. Some quality additions and a strong start will be vital for the Gunners if they are serious in mounting a title challenge.

One Gunner who believes Arsenal have what it takes to win the title next season is Theo Walcott. The England international, who has had his most productive season in an Arsenal shirt with 21 goals in all competitions, believes that they are capable of challenging for the title next season.

According to Metro, Walcott said, “I think this Arsenal team can achieve anything. We should be competing for the Premier League every year, that’s our first priority. In every competition we can go far – as long as we believe we can.”

He also said that the players need to believe in themselves and have confidence to win games. He added, “We need to realise how good we really are because, at times, we don’t think that. When we go a goal down you do see the players stepping up. And if we do that from the start we can beat anyone.”