Where to start, 48 hours after we've won the league?
Maybe in the past.
For me, Arsenal winning the league is a huge part of my childhood. It is the time of mythical figures - Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira - who arrived and made us the best team in the country. It's the story of our transition from George Graham's (very successful) 1-0 to the Arsenal to the silk and style of Arsene's early years.
What do I remember? Overmars scoring at Old Trafford in '98. Freddie's winner at Anfield in '02 when we were down to 10 men. Thierry demolishing everything in sight in 2004. These moments become part of you as a fan. They become part of the club's folklore, touchstones to be revisited endlessly in your mind.
But they also make your mind wonder to dark places. The darkest - have I already lived through my best days as an Arsenal fan? Every season throws up incredible moments. No-one will ever forget Dec's free kick's against Real, the FA Cup wins, the repeated humiliations of our north london rivals. But you want the big stuff. The really big stuff that lasts forever. And when you fall short on the biggest stages, repeatedly, it's hard to suppress doubts. Were we destined to be nearly men, flattering to deceive, always on the brink of glory? It gets harder to shake off these thoughts after 22 years.
Thankfully, the answer to those questions is a resounding no. Whatever happens in Budapest, we are back at the top of English football, a truly elite side that fully deserves the success we've achieved. And, given the state of some of our rivals, there is a genuine opportunity for us to begin a period of domination that we've not seen since the glory days under Arsene.
I credit so much of this to Mikel. This is indisputably Arteta's Arsenal. Regardless of the reasons - money, 115 charges, the shady transfer policies of our rivals - the 2010s were a decade in which we fell behind as a club. The top 4 trophy, the 10-2 aggregate defeats in the champions league, relentless defeats in top-6 contests. These were the banter years. We had great players - too many to name - but the culture of the clubnwas rotten. Not competing for the top trophies became ok. Players took the piss.
Mikel changed that, not just on the pitch but off it. It is worth re-watching the All or Nothing documentary just to see the state the club was in, even in 2021. Dubious signings driven by connections to certain members of the executive team. A club captain who was an excellent player but a terrible role model. When you accept mediocrity as a top-level organization, it takes years to roll back.
Mikel has been clear from day one that we are an elite club and we should be competing at the top. If you didn't meet those standards, you were binned, no matter the short term pain. He has created an elite culture at the club by not just signing top players, but signing players with the right mentality and attitude. Yes, we have spent more, but we have spent well. Rice, Timber, Raya, White, Havertz, Odegaard, Eze, Gabriel etc etc - these guys are warriors, consummate professionals. Whether they are winning or not, they are a credit to the club and its standards, and that is not something we have always been able to say in the last twenty years.
As late as 2021, I was still unsure whether Arteta had it in him, though, to get us back to the top. The Europa League semi final defeat to Villareal was a particular low point and it seemed to exposure Mikel's shortcomings as a coach. But what I have liked about Mikel, beyond his culture building, is his sheer persistence. He had a vision for how he wanted the team to play and he gradually got the players in to achieve it. After a few missteps (Willian *ahem*), the club gradually gave him the tools to achieve his vision. I thought that was going to be in 2024 after the incredible transfer window during the previous summer, but we couldn't quite get it over the line (ironically, we will of course finish this season with fewer points than '24, that was a truly great team).
After falling so short, repeatedly, I'd be lying if I said this year hasn't been a tough watch. In every previous title win (other than '04 lol), we had missteps, losses and challenging moments. But in '98, '02 and '04, there was a sense (and maybe this is sheer nostalgia speaking) that, at a certain point, it was 'our year'. The momentum shifted to us at a visible moment in those seasons and from there we were just finishing the job. It didn't hurt that the style of football was incredibly enjoyable to watch.
This year, the dominant theme has been control. Substance over style. The way our squad building proceeded last year, and our tactics, made it abundantly clear - we were not going to let this slip again. I think the end of the '23 season in particular was a scarring experience for Mikel. We put ourselves in a great position to win the league and then had that bizarre period where we kept conceding in the opening minutes of matches. It didn't help we were up against a historic City team, but I am very sure that experience pushed Mikel even further towards a style of football rooted in dominance and control at the expense of some style.
This change has been remarkably effective. It has also made for, at times, some brutal watching. The 1-0 at Old Trafford set the template - exploit marginal gains at corners, control the game and don't take unnecessary risks. I get it. Every single potential threat on goal, every transition of the ball even, was a risk we had to mitigate to the maximum possible. The intensity required from the team to achieve this dominance has been remarkable. There have been moments where they have suddenly exploded - the North London derbies, home wins against Villa, Fulham and Leeds - and were we've played absolutely brilliant football. But they can be contrasted to an almost punishing number of narrow wins that the team has ground out with almost military precision.
There's two ways to look at that. One is shallow - this is a team that barely got it over the line, playing some fairly uninspiring football. The other is that this team has shown a level of grit and determination I have not seen from any Arsenal team, let alone other premier league teams, for very long time. It almost reminded me at times of our CWC run in '94. We got the goals (or goal more often) and then did what we had to do to get the game over the line.
Moreover, the team has shown a level of self-belief that belies any ideas that they are weak of character. They consistently bounced back from moments of disappointment with winning streaks. This was a team of immense heart and courage, and I felt proud to watch them.
Nowhere was this shown more than the final stretch of the season. The overriding consensus was that City would walk the title after they narrowly beat us at the Etihad. This was Pep's swansong. He always found a way to get his teams over the line and Arsenal would inevitably crumble. But the opposite happened. We ground out the wins with moments of brilliance (Eze against Newcastle, wow), while City wilted.
Most people would point to Dowman at Everton or Gabriel at Newcastle as their moments of the season. But for me it is indisputably the final 15 minutes of the game at West Ham. The sequence of play that runs from the Raya save to the Trossard goal to the (correct) disallowal of the goal is a passage of time I will never forget. At the end of that game, I literally collapsed to the floor, completely spent. The players and the manger had to dig so, so deep to win that game and they did it. That is the mark of champions and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Because of the way we've played this year, the title has been a true team effort. It reminds me a lot of 2002, when it felt like the squad truly won the league as a unit. Players stepped up - some more notable than others, admittedly - when others went down. And as a group of players, they got the job done. I feel we saw that again this year. Players like Martinelli, Mosquera, Madueke, Skelly, even Eze during the first part of the season - they were not starters but all made vital contributions when called upon. Gyokeres - surely one of the most unfairly scrutinized signings in PL history - scored so many crucial goals, but without a streak that cemented himself indisputably in the team. Havertz, Odegaard and Saka all missed notable chunks of the season but provided vital goals and assists when in the team.
But if I had to pick out some players for special praise, they would be at the back. Saliba and Gabriel are one of the best CB partnerships in the club's history. Timber has been a warrior, easily the best RB in the league. And David Raya is the best goalkeeper the club has seen since David Seaman, somehow combining aerial dominance, shot stopping ability and an incredible passing range.
But my player of the season goes again to Declan Rice. He has become the heartbeat of this Arsenal team. "It's not done" - need I say more. He is everywhere, all the time. He dominates midfield and defence so completely that sometimes I feel like his actual footballing ability gets taken for granted. He is the closest thing I have seen to modern day Tony Adams and I am so glad he is always there for us, never giving up, always pushing us forward, more often or not playing the passes that tip games in our favour.
Next it's Budapest. A chance to turn one of the greatest seasons in our history to maybe *the* greatest season in our history. But whatever happens I am so proud of this team and this club. Let's keep going.
Gb
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