Arsenal have won the Premier League! Manchester City drew Bournemouth. They cannot catch Arsenal. Nobody can catch Arsenal. Our more than two decades in the wilderness are mercifully, gloriously over. After the longest run without a top flight title — 22 long years. We are CHAMPIONS!
It’s the Arsenal, Arsenal FC! And we’re far the greatest team, the world has ever seen!
It’s been a tough couple of years, to say the least. The injury-riddled disappointment that was last season. The devastating ‘23-’24
season when it took an historic run to beat Arsenal to the title by two points. The surprise ‘22-’23 season that fell apart down the stretch. Both times the Gunners were pipped, they had to watch Manchester City celebrate the title. So much heartbreak.
It’s fitting that the season Arsenal reach the mountaintop, they’ve bested City to get there. We had to endure so much talk about how they’ve got what it takes, they’re made of the right stuff, that our lads didn’t have it. Had to listen to seemingly unending, disgustingly saccharine praise heaped upon a club built on the inarguable monetary advantages accrued from more than 15 years of petrostate ownership, staring down more than 115 charges of financial impropriety that are still outstanding.
We outdid them. I wouldn’t have it any other way. All right. I’d have taken it however it happened. It has finally happened. I’m at a loss for words.
This season has been a slog. There was a stretch in the fall where Mikel Arteta started something like 8 different defensive combinations in 9 matches. Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, and Ebere Eze weren’t fit enough at the same time to start a game together until MD37. Fatigue has kept the side from reaching the scintillating heights they showed in the fall, when most felt they were the best team in Europe.
But they battled. And it was enough. What a season, really. This squad overcame so much.
Arsenal have played 61 matches across all competitions. They’ve won the most matches of any side in club history. They’ve only lost 7 games. Four of those losses came over a four-week stretch that saw the club lose the League Cup final to Manchester City, go out of the FA Cup against Southampton, get outplayed by Bournemouth at home, and lose at Manchester City to blow the title race wide open.
Everyone expected Arsenal to fold. They were praying on our downfall. But the Gunners didn’t collapse. They responded. Emphatically. They rattled off four-straight Premier League wins and beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semifinal, conceding a solitary goal on a “European” handball penalty.
When the backs were to the wall, Arsenal relied on their strength. Defense. Defense wins championships. Defense won the Premier League.
This was the one we all wanted. Celebrate and savor it. And please do tell every loser who tries to denigrate our club, downplay our achievement, and / or steal our joy to POUND SAND. Or ignore them completely.
The squad will surely enjoy it but their work isn’t finished. They’ve got a dead rubber against Crystal Palace and then a Champions League final. A magnificent, cathartic season might become an historic one.
Up the Arsenal. Onward to Budapest.
