Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal will challenge for the Premier League title next season

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James Benge10 May 2018

Arsene Wenger is convinced Arsenal will be contenders for the Premier League title next season despite the 37 point gap between them and champions Manchester City .

A 3-1 defeat at Leicester means Arsenal will end the season closer to whichever side finishes bottom of the table, almost certainly either Stoke or West Brom, than Pep Guardiola’s league leaders, who have 97 points to the Gunners 60.

Arsenal’s greatest source of frustration this season lies in the fact that they have only taken three points fewer than City at home whilst their away record is the 16th best in the league, with a tally of 13 points equal West Brom.

None of those 13 have come since the start of 2018, leaving Wenger’s side with the worst away record of any side in England top four divisions or Europe’s big five leagues. However, with an away game at Huddersfield to come before he leaves, Wenger is not particularly concerned about bequeathing his successor a side whose form on their travels is nothing short of disastrous.

“If you look at our season, at home we have championship winning form and away we have a consequence of many things,” he told Standard Sport. “A lack of confidence because of a few bad results and after that we neglected a little bit some games because we were in the Europa League.

“The quality is there, the spirit is exceptional. If the team has one or two good away results next season they will play for the Premiership I’m convinced because there is something special in that team that will come out next season.

"I’m convinced Arsenal will be one of the contenders next year."

Arsenal’s latest defeat seemed inevitable when Konstantinos Mavropanos was sent off for grappling with Kelechi Iheanacho moments after the Leicester striker had opened the scoring.

It was a harsh brush with reality for the Greek youngster, a £2million January signing from PAS Giannina who was expected to go out on loan but has impressed in two first-team appearances so far this season.

“This boy has 20 top level games in his legs,” Wenger said as he backed the youngster to learn from what he insisted was an unfair red card.

“I believe when these games are very close, it takes so much mental energy at the start of your career, that it takes a bit longer to recover.

“Tonight he was surprised by the pace of the game at the start because he had not completely recovered.

“I had a long thought about that. Do I play him straight away again or not? But sometimes you think it is going well for him, so keep him in. But I don’t think he had recovered.”

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