Arsenal should have won the Premier League sooner – Wilshere
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Jack Wilshere believes Arsenal should already have a Premier League title to show for the progress made in recent seasons.
Speaking to BBC Sport's The Football Interview, the former Gunners midfielder said the club should have won the Premier League sooner — a verdict delivered by someone who knows the inner workings of the club better than most.
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A voice from inside the building
Wilshere's opinion carries a particular weight because of how much of his life has been spent at Arsenal. He came through the club's academy, broke into the first team as a teenager under Arsene Wenger and went on to lift the FA Cup during his time in north London.
He also returned to the club after retiring as a player, working within Arsenal's youth setup, which gave him a closer look at the standards and expectations around the current era than most outside observers get.
That background is why comments like these tend to land differently with supporters than the usual punditry cycle. This is not an outsider taking a swing — it is a former academy graduate and first-team regular offering an assessment of a title race the club has been involved in without yet finishing on top.
The context behind the comment
Arsenal's recent seasons have been defined by the gap between being competitive and being champions. Successive campaigns in the title conversation have raised the baseline at the Emirates, and with it the level of scrutiny that comes when the trophy ends up elsewhere.
Mikel Arteta's rebuild has transformed the squad from a side outside the European places into one that is expected to challenge every year. For Wilshere, though, the natural next step is one the club has not yet taken.
It is a sentiment plenty of supporters share. Each near miss adds to the sense that the window for this group of players is already open, and that opportunities in a Premier League title race are not guaranteed to come around indefinitely.
Wilshere's full interview is available to watch via BBC Sport, where he reflects on his own career alongside his thoughts on the club he came through.
For Arsenal, the response to that kind of verdict can only come on the pitch across the rest of the campaign.
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