Arsenal are Premier League Champions for the first time in 22 years, culminating Mikel Arteta’s process; tearing down an under-performing club culture and rebuilding brick-by-brick, while chasing down and overcoming Pep Guardiola’s 115-charge Manchester City dynasty, making history as the first-ever former player and captain to manage his club to the Premier League title.
Mikel Arteta took over Arsenal at a historic low, their ‘big six’ status in question, having drifted far from the identity and dominance of the Invincibles, unable to compete with the financial misconduct of Chelsea and Manchester City, much-maligned by a toxic, AFTV-led social media fanbase.
Arsenal had become famed for a soft underbelly, easily bullied and unable to press or build up from the back, having fallen well behind the tactical standards of elite-level European football.
Meanwhile, Premier League legends Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp were at the peak of their rivalry; Liverpool ending a 30-year Premier League title drought, sandwiched between Manchester City’s state-backed, 115-charge fuelled ‘Centurion’, Treble, and ‘3-peat’ title winning teams.
Mikel Arteta rebuilt and redefined every aspect of Arsenal Football Club, dismantling an underperforming squad, rebuilding layer by layer with hungry young talent, and establishing a tactical identity based on energetic pressing, control, and teamwork.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team began to take shape in the 2022/23 season, exploding from 5th place into an unexpected title race where they ultimately fell short to Manchester City’s 115-fueled Treble-winning team and picked up the - now famous - ‘bottlers’ tag.
After going toe-to-toe with Manchester City’s state-backed European Champions in 2023/24 and an injury-wrecked 2024/25, Arteta faced huge media pressure to deliver.
The attention Arteta received from rival fans - even a banner during their own title celebration - was always a sign they knew what was coming.
Fuelled by the unhealed trauma of the injury-wrecked 2024/25 season, Arsenal assembled a 25-man squad built to withstand the modern football war of attrition with a single objective: win now.
Injuries prevented optimal squad rotation, but managing a 25-man squad tweaks my horrendously geeky fascination with squad management.
It is rare to get through an entire season without knowing your ‘first 11’, but injuries have constantly disrupted the Arsenal team to such an extent that only Saka, Rice, Saliba, Gabriel, and Raya are the only guaranteed starters in the Champions League final on Sunday.
As a result, Arteta has to be tactically flexible, constantly adapting to player availability throughout the season. The constants have been compactness, discipline, and - of course - play for set pieces! 😂 (I have no idea what that actually does)
Arteta employs a Positive front-foot team mentality, tapered by Support duties across the team to ensure compactness and teamwork.
Arsenal are the best out-of-possession team in world football; organised, disciplined, collective pressing, built to withstand monumental pressure.
Arteta and Arsenal had to withstand greater mental pressure from mainstream media, social media, and fan desperation than I have ever experienced before in my time following football.
Arteta withstood this crushing pressure by adopting a disciplined and resilient style of football, playing with their backs against the wall for months on end, grinding out result after result.
🕊️ Now we are free 🕊️ I am interested to see whether we persevere with the same style of football, or play something more traditionally Arsenal.
Since the number of substitutions allowed in the Premier League increased to 5, I have predicted that someone will weaponise substitutes to find an extra gear. Arteta started to tap this potential this season, with a strong enough squad to impact and decide games from the bench.
This is just the beginning and something I expect to see used to greater effect in upcoming seasons.
“Why does everyone hate Arsenal?”
Look at the political climate of the UK - Brexit, Reform, anti-immigration sentiment, flags on roundabouts - then look at Bukayo Saka, Ian Wright, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberichi Eze, the demographics of Arsenal fans, players, and club culture. This is a victory for diversity and multiculturalism.
It has nothing to do with corners.
Thank you very much - as always - for reading and supporting my writing; I hope you enjoy reading. This was challenging to write, as it’s about so much more than an individual team or tactic; an entire football club & culture reborn. Enjoy this one, Arsenal fans! ♥️ Now, we are free! 🕊️
Thank you, as well, to all of the rival fans reading; your competition made this what it is today, and it would not mean as much without you. We will be The Unsufferables for a while yet, but look forward to competing again next season; I’d love to see Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool all go at it.
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