Bridesmaids no more: Arsenal’s faith in Mikel Arteta rewarded with the ultimate prize

Trusting a rookie coach to rebuild the club in late 2019 was a big call but after three runners-up finishes the Spaniard has delivered a long-awaited title

They say good things come to those who wait, and for Arsenal supporters it has felt like an eternity. Since their unforgettable 2003-04 season when Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles went the top-flight campaign unbeaten, their team had spent an incredible 984 days at the top of the table without being champions. Until now.

After all the disappointments of the late Wenger era and finishing as runners-up in the past three seasons, that unwanted statistic can finally be put to bed after a campaign in which Mikel Arteta’s side have shown they are capable of holding their nerve. There have been many doubters along the way, not least during a disastrous April during which Arsenal lost twice to their chief rivals, Manchester City, in a run of four consecutive domestic defeats in three competitions. But it is a triumph that rewards the faith shown by the hierarchy towards a rookie manager who arrived a week before Christmas in 2019 on a mission to restore them to former glories.

The ever-meticulous Arteta says he spent his first three months talking to “everybody at the club with a lot of different roles” and asked them to come up with a word cloud that represented what it means to work for Arsenal. Only it wasn’t to his satisfaction. “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 dated back to 1886, when Arsenal were founded, and was meant to represent the roots of the club and the culture he was attempting 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.”

Like many of Arteta’s innovations, it sounds like a gimmick. But it has worked. After laying down a marker in December 2021 when the former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was jettisoned after one indiscretion too many, the manager has been allowed to build a squad in his image by American owners happy to trust in his expertise. That there was clear evidence of progression the following season also helped to convince the co-chairs, Stan Kroenke and his son Josh, that they had the right man. A youthful side invigorated by the Hale End academy product Bukayo Saka surprised everyone by finishing second, even if they were disappointed to have spent a record 248 days top before being overhauled by City.

That boardroom resolve was strengthened by ending as runners-up again in 2024 and 2025 despite question marks among some fans about whether Arteta was the right man to help Arsenal take the final step. After the surprise departure of a key Arteta ally, Edu Gaspar, the appointment of Andrea Berta as the new sporting director last March proved a pivotal moment in the club’s evolution. With considerable input from Arteta – whose youngest son, Oliver, was spotted wearing an Eberechi Eze No 10 shirt on the pitch after the Burnley victory on Monday – the Italian was instrumental in helping to assemble a squad capable of withstanding almost any injury crisis.

Many expected Liverpool to run away with the league again after spending almost £450m on players, but Arsenal’s executives remained quietly convinced this would be their year after an outlay of £250m on eight arrivals, including Eze from Crystal Palace for £67.5m and Viktor Gyökeres for £64m. All but Christian Nørgaard have made an impact, although a defence that has largely been together for the past three seasons has formed the bedrock of Arsenal’s title.

After a narrow defeat by Liverpool in August to Dominik Szoboszlai’s unstoppable free-kick, Arsenal conceded two goals in their next seven Premier League games and matched a club record of eight successive clean sheets in all competitions that was ended by Sunderland in November. By that time they were six points clear and an ability to respond to setbacks has been a characteristic that underpinned the campaign.

Many pundits predicted that the last-minute defeat by Aston Villa in December would knock Arteta’s side off their stride. But having become the first team to win all eight Champions League group stage matches, Arsenal reeled off five straight wins in the league over the busy festive period to strengthen their grip on first place. When Arteta was asked last week what had pleased him most about his team’s performances this season, he said: “Probably the capacity to adapt to very difficult and demanding circumstances and still perform and win the amount of games that we’ve done.”

Set pieces have also played a massive role in Arsenal’s success thanks to the influence of Nicolas Jover. They broke the Premier League record for goals scored from corners against Chelsea on 1 March and extended it to 19 against Burnley at just the right time on Monday night. More than a third of their 69 goals – the fifth-lowest by the champions in Premier League history – came from set pieces.

Above all, though, finding the self-belief to bounce back from their two defeats by City is a huge credit to Arteta and his players. Many are carrying the scars of missing out to City and then Liverpool in the past three seasons and their mentality has repeatedly been questioned. But since Declan Rice delivered his “It’s not over” battlecry after the final whistle at the Etihad, Arsenal have proven they had the stomach for a fight by not conceding another goal in four straight wins.

Not much of it has been pretty, although that will not concern fans who will gather on the streets of Islington for their title-winning parade the day after Arsenal’s second appearance in a Champions League final. Even if they can’t join Bob Paisley’s Liverpool of 1977, Joe Fagan’s of 1984, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United of 1999 and 2008 or Pep Guardiola’s City of 2023 by beating Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest and claiming a famous double, the future looks bright, with Arteta poised to sign a lucrative contract extension that will reward his success.

The Kroenkes, whose sports empire is estimated to be worth about $23bn (£17bn), promised in their joint programme notes on Monday that “there will be no standing still when the season ends. We are always forward in our approach and relentless in the pursuit of progress.” So it has proved.