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The end. The collapse. The exhaustion of 11 Arsenal players, slumping to the turf against the glittering backdrop of a Toon foil display. Mikel Arteta’s thousand-yard stare. Granit Xhaka’s chevron brow. The Sisyphean mission on St James’ Park’s infamously subtle slope to fight thunder, demons, Bruno Guimaraes, and the rumble and boom of 50,000 passionate Geordies. When you lose – and lose comfortably – it’s as if the ground beneath your knees swallows you up whole.
The night was May 16, 2022 – an evening that defined a blossoming Arsenal side, crushed underfoot by Newcastle, 2-0. It wasn’t the first time that Arteta’s tender team had neatly folded at the opportune moment. It may have been the most definitive. “It’s true: we couldn’t cope,” Arteta sighed in the game’s aftermath. Xhaka was far more cutting. “If some minds are not ready for this game, stay at home,” the midfielder growled. “Don’t come here. We need people to have the balls to come here and play.”
Arsenal were soft yet again – a label haunting the Emirates Stadium since the famous Highbury clock declared its first kick-off of the new era. That night, Arteta vowed that never again would his men be accused of lacking steel, finding as much in common with the ferocious philosophy of George Graham’s compactness as he had from Arsene Wenger’s evocative expressionism. “What did Arteta do? Build a wall!” was the assessment from Graham himself, speaking to FourFourTwo.
A wall became a fort, with hard-earned notches against rivals. Extensions were added, renovations readily realisable, and in time, Arteta’s cathedral emerged from the smoke. Home is a very different place these days. Where spotlights used to converge and shrink their subjects, Arsenal’s young guns dance under the lights in the vibrancy of a venue that’s been transformed, nearly four years on from their North-East nadir.
That collapse wouldn’t be the last, however. Arteta would also see his side combust in three successive pressure cookers: second in 2023, second in 2024, then second again in 2025, mirroring fans’ anguish during a similar sequence of runners-up finishes in 1999, 2000 and 2001, before Wenger’s bridesmaids returned to the throne in 2002 as fully charged Double winners.
That’s the goal again in 2026. History is never committed as ink onto a new blank page, but as fresh paintstrokes on a canvas that gains depth with each layer. Arteta stands, wielding a brush dripping with the club’s heritage: the classic back four, the midfield pass masters and the fiery pace in behind. The feeling has shifted from pain, to hope, to expectation. If that Highbury clock could chime, it would surely ring that it’s now or never.
Reconnecting the soul
Premier League football had been back for a month in 2022/23, following the mid-season break for the World Cup, when Arsenal reached 50 points for the campaign in just 19 games. The Gunners were five points clear at the top with a game in hand and on course to equal the Manchester City side that racked up 100 points in 2017/18.
“During that first title challenge in 2022/23, the atmosphere was the best I can remember since Arsene Wenger’s first season or two,” Arsenal writer and podcaster Tim Stillman says. “Everyone realised something was coming together that was more than just hoping to finish fourth, which many of us would have still taken at the start of that season. We saw that this manager was building something bigger.”
Sporting director Edu had remodelled the side. William Saliba joined on loan, while Gabriel Jesus was the big buy who gave a young side an unpredictability in attack and a first real voice of someone who’d been to the promised lands they were shooting for.
“Jesus brought a huge winning mentality with him,” former Gunner and fellow Brazilian Gilberto Silva tells FFT now. “Not everyone fully appreciates the work he’s always done.”
Bukayo Saka grew taller, dropping his boyish smile a little more to show his ruthless side. Gabriel Martinelli came in from the cold to hit 15 goals and lead the title charge. “The manager told me to be patient and wait for my time,” he tells FFT. “That’s what I did.”
Statements were stamped across that campaign. Arsenal completed a double over Tottenham in January – Arteta dragging Xhaka away from offering out the entirety of Spurs’ South Stand at full-time – before death-rattle winners against Manchester United, Aston Villa and most memorably Bournemouth, as Reiss Nelson thundered a 97th-minute clincher that could have registered on the Richter scale.
It was arguably never sustainable, though. In the springtime, Arsenal won just two of eight over the run-in to hand eventual Treble winners Manchester City the title – the coup de grace coming not with mathematical confirmation that their hopes were over following a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, but in the top-two clash weeks before, where Pep Guardiola outclassed his former protege. Arteta lamented losing key duels, and it certainly helped City to have Erling Haaland as they won 4-1 at the Etihad.
But the foundations were laid and the improvement was vast. In north London, there was a newfound connection between the pitch and the stands. “The atmosphere improved in stages,” says Stillman. “You have the Ashburton Army, a group of younger fans, roughly 18 to 30, in the Clock End who are creating an ultra vibe. In the past, the club might have been cynical about that, but they’ve been very open, giving them a specific allocation. Then there’s the stadium’s exterior – the club redid all the panels with supporter input.
“But ultimately, results are what foster that relationship. The effort is visible – all the players run their legs off, which I think contributes to the injuries. Arteta talked about ‘changing the energy’ from his very first interview, having sat in the Emirates away dugout as City assistant a week prior to getting the Arsenal job and seeing a half-empty stadium. That front-row seat to the disconnect stayed with him.” The Gunners lost that game 3-0, with many supporters heading to the exits before full-time.
As Arteta addressed the Emirates Stadium faithful after the final game of the 2022/23 campaign, his message hinged on that relationship, but hinted at ambition to come. “Together we have reconnected the soul of this football club, and the soul of this football club is you guys,” he told the crowd. “We know what our destination is: to bring success, joy and trophies to this club. But in the meantime, please enjoy the journey.” As far as Arteta was concerned, the journey was just beginning; Edu doubled down in the transfer market.
“Edu isn’t just a friend to me – he’s like a brother,” Gilberto explains of his compatriot and former Arsenal team-mate, who had returned to the club in July 2019, initially as technical director. “What was always clear was that he worked in complete alignment with the club’s values and culture. Player recruitment was always about that – about finding players who understood the club’s DNA.
“He arrived at a time when results were poor, pressure was immense and supporters were demanding answers. The team clearly needed rebuilding and that often brings friction, particularly when results don’t follow. But as the years passed and the club edged closer to a Premier League title challenge, the adjustments became far more targeted and far less drastic than at the start.
“His influence on what’s happening now is enormous, even though many of those decisions were made years ago.”
Kai Havertz moved north from Chelsea, before Jurrien Timber signed from Ajax to bolster the defence. Declan Rice then smashed the Arsenal transfer record, joining for £105 million from West Ham, before goalkeeper David Raya completed the spree in August.
A Community Shield shootout win over Manchester City banished a recent demon or two, while another last-gasp victory – this time against Manchester United – truly announced Rice in N5. It took time for confidence to bloom, however. By New Year’s Eve, Arsenal were fourth, albeit two points off top spot. In the second half of the season, sparks caught the wind and the club’s blueprint began to breathe.
Havertz reawakened after a training camp in Dubai as Frankenstein’s forward – a false nine and target man stitched together. Raya began to settle between the sticks, etching his name as the penalty hero against Porto in March. Leandro Trossard, meanwhile, notched 17 goals, cheekily querying, “Are you not entertained?” on social media after scoring against former club Brighton. Oh, the fans very much were, as Rice evolved from a defensive destroyer into an all-action titan in the engine room, running games for the Gunners.
“In midfield, in any top team, you’re the heartbeat of the team,” Rice tells FFT. “The two centre-backs, Gabriel and Saliba, want to play really aggressively in a high line. It helps me to get forward and be aggressive.”
Arsenal picked up 49 of 54 available points from New Year’s Day to the end of the campaign. They’d done almost everything in their power. “We’ve done less and won the league,” Stillman sighs.
The Gunners led the table with seven games left, but Manchester City won every match from that point on. Just one slip up cost Arteta’s side. “We lost at home to Aston Villa the weekend after going out of the Champions League to Bayern Munich,” Stillman adds. “If we’d lost in the previous round to Porto, I think we would have won the Premier League that season. We got 89 points and 91 goals. In almost any other era, that wins the league.”
Efficiency over elegance
Arsenal had enjoyed a record-beating scoring season, outgunning the echoes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino were brought in over the summer of 2024 to sprinkle more grit into the squad, while Myles Lewis-Skelly, a physical anomaly toying with prey in youth football, was formally promoted to the fringes of the squad alongside Ethan Nwaneri.
Arteta’s men looked meaner to beat from the off. Raya began the season in cat-like condition against Aston Villa and Atalanta, Timber returned from injury, and an early title clash at the Etihad showed Arsenal’s stubbornness – drawing and almost hanging on for victory, despite being a man down for 45 minutes against a ferocious barrage of sky-blue missiles.
But their form just couldn’t catch fire – injuries, red cards and sloppy draws were all to blame. Despite Manchester City floundering, a scenario the Gunners had been waiting years for, it was Liverpool who took advantage.
Arsenal struggled on, losing Havertz, Gabriel, Saka and Martin Odegaard at one stage or another, with Jesus, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu also undergoing surgery. Just as in previous crises, Arteta mined the club’s Hale End academy for answers: Lewis-Skelly grew up overnight, while Nwaneri was drafted in on the right-hand side.
Merino, meanwhile, was forced to moonlight as a centre-forward. It had become the team’s problem position – even when Havertz was fit, there was a feeling that Arsenal needed greater presence up front. Compared to the season before, they scored 22 fewer Premier League goals last term, and racked up 15 fewer points.
“Haaland is at the top of the tree, of course, but if you think of 10 top-class centre-forwards in world football, it’s not easy,” former Gunners forward Alan Smith says. “If you do have somebody leading the line, occupying opposition centre-halves, it frees up so much for the other players. It’s a great asset to have, but Arsenal aren’t the only ones who’ve struggled to find that kind of player over the years.”
Not particularly quick or agile, Merino nevertheless translated the role back into Spanish, dropping into midfield and ghosting into pockets of space. He had the muscle to win duels as well as the single-mindedness to convert chances. A patchwork Arsenal side ground out results by any means, with efficiency over elegance.
“I don’t care what style Arsenal play – I’m not entertained if they don’t win,” Stillman admits. “I felt Arsenal lost touch with the unglamorous side of the game under Wenger and the consequences were catastrophic. We were above it. I didn’t like being called babies by Patrice Evra, or Troy Deeney saying we lacked cojones. None of that is entertaining.”
Despite their lack of goals, Arteta’s men only lost four league matches all season – the lowest tally since 2007/08. Two of those defeats surprisingly came to Bournemouth, but Cherries gaffer Andoni Iraola remained full of praise for his fellow Basque boss.
“Mikel is a top, top coach,” Iraola tells FFT. “We have a lot of things in common with Arsenal, especially without the ball and the way we press. But their last line of defence, the way they defend their box, the centre-backs, their goalkeeper and the decisive moments from them… they are elite. They adapt to everything.”
Arsenal finished second in the table again, but not before making a further statement. The overthrowing of Real Madrid in the Champions League said something of the past, present and future. The finest night in Emirates Stadium history, for sure, and proof of Declan Rice as the most magnetic midfielder on the planet, a man who seemingly only deals in the grandiose. That night was a vision of what was certainly to follow, too. Mikel Arteta’s cathedral now glistens like the Sagrada Familia when the Arsenal are on song, glowing gold from the warm floodlights, crimson from the congregation and a lush green from the pristine pitch; the best-kept garden in N5. More nights like that, and silverware must surely follow.
It’s conjecture of course, but Arteta may well have revelled in the grit of the 2-1 return leg triumph against the reigning European champions more than the grace of the 3-0 home win. The delicate imbalance of a contest teetering towards his team is perhaps more satisfying for a man who spent much of his career as an underdog.
Yet over a record summer of 2025, Arsenal allowed no such fine margins in the transfer market. With new sporting director Andrea Berta at the helm, the Gunners sought out eight new recruits, surgically straightening each statistical slip. The arrivals of Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres created the biggest headlines, though Martin Zubimendi perhaps provided the final puzzle piece of Arteta’s first XI.
“Zubimendi complements Declan Rice brilliantly – he’s the guard dog in front of the centre-backs, occupying space, playing simply and efficiently,” Gilberto says – and the Brazilian should know, as a legendary no.6 himself. “He’s the little engine – constantly filling the gaps, offering Declan the freedom to push forward, arrive in the box and even score goals.” The new signings haven’t just fostered competition but closeness.
“We all make each other better,” Noni Madueke tells FFT, stopping for a brief word with us in the mixed zone after the Gunners’ win away at Bournemouth in early January. “You’ve got a team full of top players, top internationals. Nobody can drop their standards. We all hold each other accountable. I think that to be a special team, which is what we’re trying to be, that’s very important.”
It’s an approach that led them not only to the top of the Premier League by the turn of the year, but also to top spot in the league stage of the Champions League – over their first six games, they scored 17 times, conceded just once, and convincingly saw off both Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich. Arteta’s side could credibly claim to be the best team in European football.
Having made their first Champions League semi-final in 16 years last term, conquering the continent for the first time ever is a dream this season, too – bookmakers quickly made Arsenal favourites to be crowned European champions in Budapest on May 30.
This is a Gunners team of astounding adaptability. From dead balls or sharing intricate passes like geometric jokes in midfield, in wide open spaces or the more congested corners of the Emirates grass. Arteta’s army will underlap and overlap, drift and dart as red arrows weaving at will. They can either beat you physically or beat you technically. “I’ve always felt they would get over the line in the league eventually,” says Stillman. “This squad is a great age – mostly 25 to 28 now – and they’ve done the course a few times. As long as the core group stays, they will have more cracks at it. The lesson of Liverpool is that if you keep competing, then it will eventually fall for you.”
Not since the days of Gilberto and the Invincibles of 2004 have Arsenal stayed the course all the way to the end and lifted that Premier League trophy. Nearly 22 full years have passed since then – the length of time without a league title has only increased the pressure. That they’ve shown the resilience to recover from their previous disappointments is something that Gilberto believes they deserve credit for. “Staying in the title race for four consecutive years is difficult,” he says. “When you go all the way and don’t quite make it, it takes a toll mentally. But this group alone isn’t responsible for the long gap since the club’s last Premier League title.”
Manchester City had gone 44 years without winning the league when they triumphed in 2012 – they’d go on to win eight titles in 13 seasons. Manchester United’s title drought lasted 26 years before they won the Premier League in 1993 – they would then lift the trophy 13 times in 21 campaigns.
Following up those sorts of numbers would be an extremely tall order, but there’s a possibility that this Arsenal team have been building towards a dynasty. “You just want consistency,” Smith says. “Manchester City have done it, and Manchester United before them. If Arsenal win it, they are capable of being the team to beat. This season could only be the start.”
Just one Premier League title will be more than enough to make Gunners fans happy right now – for those too young to experience the remarkable campaign of 2003-04, it’s a moment they’ve never witnessed. This time, Arsenal don’t need to be Invincibles, they just need to be champions.
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