There is no such thing as an undeserving champion, at least not until independent commissions or courts make their judgements. But holding out for 22 years, finishing as runners-up three years in a row and combining it with an impeccable run to a Champions League final all at once? That counts as a biggie.
Glorious triumph is viewed through two prisms, both quite different to the other. The first is as a simple mark of success, an in-the-moment judgement. In this snapshot in time Arsenal were the best and nobody can argue it.
The second is triumph as the completion of a redemption arc and it’s often here where the sweetest fruit can be picked. It asks us not just to look at where champions got to, but where they came from. Only Leicester City’s arc is more storied in the Premier League’s last 20 years than Arsenal in 2026.
This campaign hasn’t just been the culmination of very good players doing very good things. It is the final step of a 20-year journey since Arsenal moved to the Emirates Stadium. That coincided with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal finishing outside the top two for the first time in eight years and the rapid disintegration of modern rivalry with Manchester United. First Arsenal fell, then United did.
Those post-Highbury years were noisy in the wrong way, enforced comparative austerity as reality bit and supporters griped. Until 2013, Arsenal had even never spent more than £15m on a player. Chelsea, the face of new power, signed 11 for more than that before Arsenal did for the first time.
Instead, Arsenal became the inadvertent face of elite club atrophy, a club that players left to win major trophies rather than joined. The seven straight last-16 exits from the Champions League: hard-luck stories against Barcelona, AC Milan and Monaco before the 10-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich that felt like a club’s soul being burned. This is all for all of that.
This title is in part a victory of circumstance, although that is a compliment. Arsenal surely performed better in 2023-24 – more points, more goals scored, more fun had along the way but far less at the end. The difference is that Manchester City didn’t get 91 points this season. You put yourself in the right position enough times and you pray that at least once it will be enough. Arsenal flourished through the “buy a ticket, win the raffle” principle.
This has not been a vintage Premier League season, in terms of quality or entertainment. But why would Arsenal give a damn about that? They built a squad that they believed could be controlled and consistent and they were proven spectacularly right. They became a mirror of the league itself and that’s why they won.
There will be questions around the style. Arsenal will likely be the lowest-scoring Premier League champions since 1992-93. They continually maximised the advantages of attacking set pieces in an industry that hasn’t quite worked out how to deal with them. Their manager shunned the tactical idealism of Wenger in favour of arch pragmatism. Arteta too was proven right by the end result.
All season we have been reminded that the Premier League is tightening up, a true anyone-can-beat-anyone season. The financial gaps clearly still exist, but English football’s economic dominance dictates that even the worst clubs in the division have several excellent footballers. The team in 16th has Elliot Anderson, for goodness sake.
Which makes Arsenal’s ruthlessness more impressive. Manchester City, with the deepest squad and the best coach, dropped 23 points in 28 matches against teams outside the top six and lost three times. Liverpool, the defending champions, dropped 32 points and lost six times. Arsenal dropped 10 points and were unbeaten. That was the difference.
This was a triumph of mentality, then. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, the two supposed attacking jewels, have started 25 and 16 league matches, Kai Havertz just seven. Viktor Gyokeres struggled for most of his first campaign back in England.
And Arsenal did this with their only previous experience being heartache and unrequited ambition. Of the 11 players with 20 or more league starts, none had ever won a title in a top five European league. The manager hadn’t either, as a player or a manager.
Most of all, we thought we knew what Arsenal were. It was always a constructed parody to declare them bottlers; these things usually exist in shades of grey. But to come so close and finish so far has to colour your psychology.
After the defeat at home to Bournemouth, Arsenal stared their own failure in the face once again. This title is for that too. Never overlook the resilience to accept that people doubt you and to prove them wrong while the world watches your struggle as a sport within the sport. And we’re supposed to criticise the method of this feat?
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I hope that Arsenal supporters enjoy this title to its full extent. Winning major trophies should be a familial experience but this season has contained more than a whiff of us vs the haters, like the Father Ted “And now we move onto liars” speech. Live in the moment. Forget the Champions League final, at least for a day or two. Bask in the realisation that a superpower has been toppled.
And when thoughts of the future are permitted, let them only be tinged in red, white and gold. Arsenal have won a league title. They have seen off Pep Guardiola. They have built from so far back and the length of the fight means that they are best placed to fight many more.
A new, post-Guardiola age of the Premier League is beginning. Arsenal will start it as the champion club. And nobody will remember how it was won in five years’ time.
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