Arsene Wenger says he is not reluctant to change a winning team because he has so many top-class options at his disposal.

The Arsenal manager named an unchanged side for the fourth Premier League game in a row at Hull City on Monday, the first time Wenger has done that since taking over in 1996.

The Gunners are on course to finish second for the first time in a decade, but Wenger says any shuffling of his pack should not affect results.

"I have no problems changing the players because they are all in very good shape, the players who practice" Arsene Wenger

“I’m ready to change but we had a stability on the tactical front, the confidence was there and I didn’t change recently,” the manager said.

“I have no problems changing the players because they are all in very good shape, the players who practice.

“Players like Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs for example were not completely there in recent weeks but now they are all there on the competitive front. There’s no problem.

“We feel we have made progress in our consistency, our quality and our stability. That is what we want to continue and I believe it is important to finish as close as possible to Chelsea and come out of the season and think we are ready to challenge next season.

“It is difficult to know how strong every team will be next year but you gain as well your confidence from what you have achieved the year before and how you have moved forward. That is why it is very important that we continue to be consistent until the end of the season.”

ADVERT

Arsenal have all but secured their Champions League place for the 18th successive season, and Wenger is pleased with the progress they have made.

“I’m proud of consistency because it’s not easy to produce quality every year, every day,” he said. “For years we had to do it with less resources than people thought we had.

“People forget about that but we had to sell our best players for years to stay at the top. Today I think we have gone over that hurdle and we can have higher ambitions again but for years it was difficult.”