Arsenal’s faith in Mikel Arteta rewarded with Premier League title after 984-day wait

After an 11-year wait, Arsenal have finally secured the Premier League title, ending a run of 984 days spent at the top of the table without being champions since their unbeaten 2003-04 season under Arsène Wenger.

The triumph rewards the faith shown by Arsenal’s hierarchy in rookie manager Mikel Arteta, who arrived in December 2019 tasked with restoring the club to former glories after decades of disappointments including finishing runners-up in the past three seasons.

Arteta, known for his meticulous approach, said he spent his first three months speaking to “everybody at the club with a lot of different roles” and asked them to create a word cloud representing what it means to work for Arsenal. “That word, I didn’t like it so it had to be changed,” he said last month. “We needed something that was there every day and that we can act on. So then I bought the [olive] tree.”

The tree, dating back to Arsenal’s founding in 1886, was meant to symbolize the club’s roots and the culture Arteta aimed to foster. “In our environment it needs a lot of detail, a lot of attention,” he said. “Because it can fluctuate and one day the storm can come in. How do you react to that? It’s easy when the sun is out and it has a lot of water it will be fine. But when it gets windy and it’s frozen, how are we meant to look after that. And that was a way to represent that in a living thing.”

Arteta’s innovations, including the olive tree, have proven effective. After jettisoning former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in December 2021 for disciplinary reasons, Arteta built a squad in his image with support from American owners Stan and Josh Kroenke, who trusted his expertise.

Clear progression the following season, when a youthful side led by Hale End product Bukayo Saka surprised many by finishing second despite spending a record 248 days top, strengthened boardroom belief in Arteta despite back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2024 and 2025.

The appointment of Andrea Berta as sporting director last March, following the departure of Arteta ally Edu Gaspar, proved pivotal. With input from Arteta—whose youngest son, Oliver, was spotted wearing an Eberechi Eze No. 10 shirt after a Burnley victory—Berta helped assemble a squad capable of withstanding injuries.

While many expected Liverpool to dominate after spending nearly £450 million, Arsenal’s executives remained confident after investing £250 million on eight arrivals, including Eze from Crystal Palace for £67.5 million and Viktor Gyökeres for £64 million. A stable defense, largely together for three seasons, formed the bedrock of the title campaign.

After a narrow August defeat to Liverpool on Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick, Arsenal conceded just two goals in their next seven Premier League matches and matched a club record of eight consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, broken by Sunderland in November. By then they led by six points, and their ability to respond to setbacks defined the season.

Despite predictions that a last-minute December loss to Aston Villa would derail them, Arsenal became the first team to win all eight Champions League group-stage matches and won five straight league games over the festive period to tighten their grip on first place. “Probably the capacity to adapt to very difficult and demanding circumstances and still perform and win the amount of games that we’ve done,” Arteta said of what pleased him most.

Set pieces, overseen by Nicolas Jover, played a massive role. Arsenal broke the Premier League record for goals from corners against Chelsea on March 1 and extended it to 19 against Burnley on Monday night. More than a third of their 69 league goals—the fifth-lowest by a champion in Premier League history—came from set pieces.

Above all, self-belief to bounce back from two defeats by Manchester City was key. Players carried scars from falling short to City and Liverpool in previous seasons, but after Declan Rice’s “It’s not over” battlecry at the Etihad, Arsenal did not concede another goal in four straight wins.

While the football was not always pretty, fans will celebrate with a title-winning parade after Arsenal’s second appearance in a Champions League final. The future looks bright, with Arteta poised to sign a lucrative contract extension. The Kroenkes, whose sports empire is valued at about $23 billion, promised “there will be no standing still when the season ends.”