Arsene Wenger: Young guns will fire next season

Arsene Wenger today reflected on missed opportunities and insisted that the lessons learned in the last few weeks will enable Arsenal to reclaim their trophy-winning status next season.

The Gunners coach, now without silverware for three consecutive seasons, is confident that his young team will be better equipped to cope with the pressures of sustaining a challenge for next season's Premier League and Champions League titles.

"We were so close this season," he said after watching Arsenal's 6-2 demolition of relegated Derby County at Pride Park last night.

"I feel we were just one game away from winning the Premier League this season. Had we won at Old Trafford - and we were one goal up - we'd have been champions.

"So you can't say we've had a dreadful season. We've lost only three times and in my view we're stronger now than we were at the start of the season. We've got 77 points with two games still to play and in the past we won the title with 78 points.

"We went through a difficult patch in March and we've paid for it. You could see that we didn't have the experience but now that the pressure is off we are back to our best.

"We have learned from the experience and I think we will be better equipped to cope with the pressure next season." There was certainly no sign of any pressure last night as Arsenal cruised, almost nonchalantly at times, to their biggest League win since beating Derby 5-0 in September. Emmanuel Adebayor scored a hat-trick that day and last night, summoned from the substitutes' bench, he repeated the feat in 45 minutes to take his goal tally for the season to 30.

"I thought at the beginning of the season that he might get 15," smiled Wenger. "Last night he took full advantage of all the hard work the team had done in the first half. I believe there is still more in the locker from him." In truth, Adebayor and his team-mates cannot have faced a slower defence than Derby's. The centre-backs Darren Moore and Alan Stubbs were simply embarrassed for pace by Adebayor and Theo Walcott and were frequently lured out of position by Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie, before the Dutch striker retired with a thigh strain.

"The vision we have of the game we want to play is stronger than anything else and, even when there is little at stake, that vision is still obvious," said Wenger. "There is still room for improvement because I felt we could have scored more goals."

Bendtner scored Arsenal's first when Moore lost possession and, after Jay McEveley had equalised, Van Persie capitalised on Moore's error to restore Arsenal's lead just before half time.

Adebayor added a third before substitute Robert Earnshaw outstripped William Gallas to give Derby hope of a revival. But within seconds Walcott scored a brilliant goal from out on the left and then Adebayor added two more.

By the end the Derby fans were applauding the quality of Arsenal's football - and Wenger was smiling again. "For me this young team has a big future," he said.