Wenger lays it on the line - Gunners will be champions next season

Arsenal sealed their first home win for two months over relegation-threatened Reading - with Arsene Wenger insisting his side will win the title next season.

The Gunners turned on the style at The Emirates to all-but seal third place in the Premier League - an improvement on last season's fourth place finish - courtesy of goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Gilberto Silva.

Second place is still a distinct possibility and will be helped enormously if Chelsea lose to Manchester United on Saturday lunchtime.

"From this season we should get the belief we can win trophies and come back to win the title," said Wenger, who also claimed the outstanding Theo Walcott had his best game for the club.

"It would be criminal not to believe we could do it because we were so close this year.

"We could have gone unbeaten this season as well as we only lost three games, and if you look at how we lost them, we were not far from that level [of consistency].

"That is why I am so insistent that I keep this team together and that we try to come back and have a good go next year.

"We have a very young team with a great future."

Adebayor broke the deadlock inside the opening quarter of an hour with his 27th goal of a prolific campaign before Gilberto fired home a second when his speculative drive deflected of Royals defender Andre Bikey and into the top corner.

Robin van Persie and Walcott both struck the bar after the break as Arsenal turned on an excellent attacking display, but they had to settle for two.

Gilberto added: "We must look forward because it's hard to accept that we can do nothing.

"I feel sad that we are going for second place because we wanted to be fighting for the title.

"However, as professionals, we have to go for three more victories and see what happens at the end.