Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insists the Gunners can win the title next season but admits they need a flying start to their campaign.
The Gunners struggled in the early stages of last season with the Frenchman blaming the World Cup Finals for disappointing results against Everton and Leicester in August.
And he will be hoping for a much better start this time around when Arsenal take on tricky West Ham United and Crystal Palace in the first two weeks of next month.
"When you lose your best players it's impossible [to win the title] and when you see that some other opponents have strengthened their squad and are already stronger than you, it's difficult," Wenger told the club's official website.
"We only just got in the top four [previously] because we managed to grab every point but you see other teams still strengthening their team and you're losing your best players, it's difficult to be convinced that you can win the league.
"What is true [now] is that we have a stability that we did not have before on the squad front.
"Before, I was more exposed to who will go and now the question I get more is, 'who will come in?'
"That means that our potential on the market has changed.
"Will we win the Premier League? We'll give it absolutely everything, but it's a very awkward competition. You have five or six competitors.
"We have a stability that gives us strength, but it's very difficult to guess how strong the other teams will be.
"What you could say is that last year we missed our start for different reasons. One of them was that some players were not mentally ready after the World Cup.
"It was also because we had the Champions League qualifier and that cost us a lot of energy against Besiktas.
"We have a tricky start again. West Ham look to have bought well and Crystal Palace are a strong team. We have to be ready from the beginning but it will be a tricky start."
