Arsenal have won the Premier League title for the first time since 2004 after Manchester City drew 1-1 with Bournemouth on 20 May, ending a 22-year wait that has defined one of English football’s most agonising stretches of near-misses and what-ifs. Erling Haaland pulled City level in the 94th minute at the Vitality Stadium, but a point was not enough, and the title belongs to Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side needed only Manchester City to drop points at Bournemouth, having done their own part with a 1-0 win over Burnley on 18 May. That victory took Arsenal to 82 points, and City can now reach a maximum of 81. The title is confirmed with one round of matches still to play.
Arsenal have led the Premier League table almost without interruption since October, losing top spot only briefly in April following a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad Stadium. Even then, Arteta refused to yield. “It is a new league now,” he said after that defeat. “We have a game in hand. We have three points of advantage and five games to play, so everything is still to play for. We know how much we want it and we are not going to stop.”
They did not stop. Arsenal won all four of their next league matches without conceding a single goal, three of them 1-0 victories that exemplified the grit and defensive resolve that has characterised their campaign. City’s 3-3 draw away to Everton earlier in the month effectively ended the title race on that evening, with Arsenal needing only to see out the remaining fixtures.
Across the season, Arsenal have won 25 of their 37 league matches, drawn seven and lost five, a record of sustained excellence across nine months of competition that fully merits the prize it has delivered.
At 44 years and 54 days old, Arteta becomes the third-youngest manager to win the Premier League, behind only Jose Mourinho, who won the title with Chelsea aged 42 and 43 in 2005 and 2006 respectively. This is still his first job as a senior manager, having taken charge of Arsenal in December 2019 before his title was formally changed to manager in August 2020. Six and a half years of building, developing and refusing to be deterred by the near-misses of previous seasons have culminated in this moment.
Arteta is understood to be waiting until the full conclusion of the season before beginning negotiations over a new contract, with his current deal running until 2027.
For Pep Guardiola, the result draws a line under a disappointing conclusion to his time at Manchester City. He is set to leave the club at the end of the season having failed to win the Premier League in each of the last two campaigns, with Liverpool claiming the title in 2024-25 and Arsenal taking it this year. It is a melancholy ending for a manager whose decade at City reshaped the landscape of English football.
Arsenal’s season is not yet over. They face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest on 30 May, a match that also carries the weight of personal history. PSG eliminated Arsenal at the semi-final stage last season, and the opportunity for revenge adds another dimension to what is already the most significant occasion in the club’s recent history.
Should Arsenal win in Budapest, it would represent the greatest season in the club’s 139-year history, a Premier League and Champions League double that would surpass even the achievements of Arsene Wenger’s famous unbeaten Invincibles side of 2003-04.
