Jack Wilshere says it’s time to put Arsenal’s barren years behind them and bring silverware to the Emirates Stadium for the first time.

Not only that, the England midfielder believes this squad has the capability of doing that, despite having fallen by the wayside badly last year.

In an exclusive interview with Talksport, Wilshere said, “Even this year, I’ve been reading things like: ‘Arsenal aren’t title contenders.’ But we’ve had that for years.

“We feel we have a great squad, as we showed towards the end of last season, when we went 11 games unbeaten, so if we can reproduce that form, then we have a chance. When we had to get the results, we went out there and got them. And that’s what we need to take into this season.

“Arsenal used to be a team that won everything, you know – trophies and titles. But now we haven’t won anything for eight years, so we know what we have to do.

“It’s time to start producing trophies and being closer to the top of the league at the end of the season. We don’t just want to be fighting for fourth place – we want to be up there with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United.

“We feel we’re good enough to be there.”

While there is obviously intense frustration at the state of the squad and the lack of summer transfer market activity, the fact is that this is a group of good, honest guys who will give 100% for the club. Whether that’s enough remains to be seen, but we ought to be applauding the attitude because it can’t be easy for them at the moment either.

Wilshere also touched on the two cup exits last season and called on his teammates to grow up and ensure exits like that aren’t repeated.

“Last season, we lost games in cup competitions in which we could have been there at the end. We lost against Bradford away and Blackburn at home. We should never be losing games like that. But this year we have to get over that, grow up a bit and realise that we need a trophy – Arsenal’s too good not to be winning trophies.

“We’ll be in four competitions this year. We know we have to win one of them.”

Let’s hope so.