Bitter rivalries aside, it is only fair to give the newly crowned English Premier League champions, Arsenal, their flowers. Congratulations, Gunners — it has been a long time coming and, I am certain, worth the tearful and painful wait.
It is undoubtedly a truly well-deserved title for a team that has toiled so hard, not just this season, but for the past few years to reach this incredible pinnacle, having come close in two of the past three seasons in which they finished as runners-up.
In an era when managers and head coaches are so quickly dispatched by club owners when things are not going according to plan — an era of player power and cliques in dressing rooms — it gives a lot of hope that club owners can still stand behind a manager or head coach building a team from the ground up, like Mikel Arteta has done.
The club’s owners exhibited the patience of the Biblical Job when Arteta first took over the club from his compatriot Unai Emery in December 2020, with the young Spanish coach finishing that first half-season in charge in eighth place and replicating the same position in his first full campaign in 2020/21, followed by another frustrating fifth-place finish in 2021/22, ensuring the Gunners missed UEFA Champions League qualification for the third straight season of his reign.
Therefore, this title victory and qualification for their first Champions League final since 2006 gives hope that football still has a soul, that it is alive with possibilities for those who dare to dream (pun intended, Spurs fans), for those who climb in pursuit of the highest peaks, fail, but climb yet still.
Arsenal, under Arteta, have been the nearly men of both the Premier League and Champions League several times in recent seasons, falling spectacularly short whenever their legion of fans started to believe the pinnacle was within reach.
Having finished eighth twice and fifth (2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22) in the Spaniard’s first three seasons in charge, they ran Manchester City close in the 2022/23 campaign, with only four points separating the pair, while the following 2023/24 campaign was a source of more heartbreak as they fell just two points short of City’s haul of 91 title-winning points.
Liverpool wrapped up the title in sunny English April last season, with a telling 10-point gap proving a bridge too far for the North Londoners as the Reds of Merseyside romped to their 20th English crown with 84 points.
The Gunners have roared back with the ferocity of a wounded lion, with many of their matches won on pure survival instincts, unbridled determination, grit and workmanship.
It was not pretty most of the time, but Gunners fans of a bygone era — particularly the post-2004 Arsène Wenger years — will tell you that aesthetically pleasing football did little to keep their trophy cabinet glistening with new silverware, as they had not won any titles of significance bar a few FA Cups in the 2010s.
Arsenal’s fourth Premier League-era English top-flight title win (their 14th overall English top-flight title) has been built on almost unbreakable defensive solidity, with their rearguard marshalled by the central defensive pairing of towering Brazilian centre back Gabriel Magalhães and his French defensive partner William Saliba.
At the beginning of the season, the solid wall of North London was also manned by Ben White doing duty at right back and the tigerish Dutch warrior Jurriën Timber shackling any fleet-footed right winger as he prowled up and down the left flank in the execution of his left-back role.
When White and Timber’s seasons were blighted by niggling injuries, Arteta’s shrewd manoeuvres in the transfer market over the summer paid handsome dividends as he could call upon two equally capable deputies in Piero Hincapié and Cristhian Mosquera.
In the later stages of a demanding campaign, in which they have also rubber-stamped their arrival as a continental force in the UEFA Champions League, Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães have been capably flanked by Arteta’s compatriot, the 21-year-old lanky Mosquera, on the right, and the Ecuadorian Hincapié at left back, currently on loan from Bayer Leverkusen.
Whereas many top-six clubs in the Premier League often raid the transfer market when they have fallen at the final hurdle in a title race the previous season, it did not take any significant big-name squad overhaul over the past summer transfer window to aid Arsenal’s quest for a much-sought final climb in 2025/26.
Out of the seven signings the Gunners made between July and August 2025, only Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres, lured from Sporting CP, England international Eberechi Eze, who made the short journey from Crystal Palace in South London, Spanish defensive midfielder Martín Zubimendi and tricky English winger Noni Madueke, signed from Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea, could be considered big-name signings.
The likes of Christian Nørgaard, the Danish defensive midfielder signed from Brentford, Mosquera, Hincapié and Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who also made the move to North London from Chelsea, could, respectfully, be considered squad players rather than first-choice starters.
However, what these new signings have brought to Arteta’s squad is a high level of competition for places in the 18-man matchday squad, a critical aspect of squad dynamics which has assisted Arsenal when key players have been injured or suspended.
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, a serial English Premier League title winner who led the Red Devils to 13 Premier League crowns in his 26-year spell in charge at Old Trafford, once famously quipped that “attack wins you games, defence wins you titles”, and this has proven true in Arsenal’s case this campaign as they shipped the fewest goals in the entire division, conceding just 26 times.
The addition of the fearsome Gyökeres has aided their frontline in plundering more goals in the Premier League, contributing a decent 14 strikes to the team’s overall tally of 69 in the 37 matches it took for them to land their first league title since 2004.
The rest of their 69 strikes have been spread across the attack, with England superstars Bukayo Saka and Eze both on seven goals apiece, Belgian winger Leandro Trossard on six, while the injury-prone Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus netted twice, the same as Madueke and the German Kai Havertz.
Other major goalscoring contributions have come from Zubimendi with five goals. Declan Rice, the English midfield fulcrum, netted four, the same as versatile Spanish midfielder Mikel Merino, while Timber and Gabriel Magalhães notched three apiece.
The one-goal wonders in Arsenal’s successful Premier League campaign were Saliba, Hincapié, Brazilian paceman Gabriel Martinelli, Italian defensive mainstay Riccardo Calafiori, skipper Martin Ødegaard, and English teenage sensation Max Dowman, whose 96th-minute goal to give Arsenal a 2-0 home victory over Everton in March saw him etched into Premier League folklore as the competition’s youngest-ever goalscorer at 16 years and 73 days old.
It is this quality in squad depth, particularly in defensive areas, and the shared goalscoring responsibilities that have propelled the Gunners to the dizzying heights in which they now find themselves soaring. Significantly, though, it is Arteta’s tactical nous, the team spirit, camaraderie and work ethic of this group that have seen them immortalised in gold in this incredibly exciting 2025/26 season.
* Samkelo Mtshali writes in his personal capacity
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
