Arsenal ended a 22-year wait to be crowned Premier League champions on Tuesday night, confirmed as title winners after second-placed Manchester City could only draw 1-1 at Bournemouth.
Mikel Arteta’s side, leaders for almost the entire season, are now four points clear with one game remaining. Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace will be a coronation rather than a contest.
Arsenal had beaten Burnley 1-0 on Monday, leaving City needing a win on the south coast to extend the title race to the final day. Instead, they trailed to Eli Junior Kroupi’s first-half goal and Erling Haaland’s stoppage-time equaliser came too late to matter.
It is Arsenal’s 14th English top-flight title and their first since the 2003-04 season, when Arsène Wenger’s side completed an unbeaten campaign. It is also their first major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, won in Arteta’s debut season after he replaced Unai Emery.
Arteta, 44, becomes the youngest manager in Arsenal’s history to win the English top-flight title. The Spaniard had seen his side dubbed the nearly men after three successive runners-up finishes, but his team’s belief never wavered even after City displaced them from the top of the table in April following 200 consecutive days in first place.
Arsenal trail only Manchester United and Liverpool — who share the record with 20 titles each — in the all-time rankings.
CELEBRATIONS IN NORTH LONDON
The confirmation sparked huge celebrations across North London. Large crowds of Arsenal fans, many carrying red flares, gathered outside the Emirates Stadium within minutes of the final whistle at Bournemouth. The first-team squad and staff, watching together at the club’s training ground north of London, erupted as the result came through, with videos of the celebrations posted widely online.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a self-declared Arsenal supporter, posted on X from 10 Downing Street: “22 long years for Arsenal. But finally we’re back where we belong.”
Fittingly, the title was delivered with the help of Arteta’s close friend Andoni Iraola, whose Bournemouth side held City. Arteta had said the previous day that he would be Bournemouth’s “biggest fan” for a couple of hours on Tuesday evening.
Arsenal’s triumph has been built on the fierce intensity, defensive discipline and attention to detail that Arteta has instilled since overhauling the club’s culture on and off the pitch.
The celebrations could yet be extended further. Arsenal face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest on 30 May, bidding to win the trophy for the first time. Should they do so, Arteta’s side will go down as one of the greatest in the club’s 140-year history.
(Reuters)
