This is Only the Beginning

Why this Arsenal team’s story won’t end without adding to this Premier League title.

It’s funny. Just under fifteen years ago, as I watched Arsenal unveil Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker among a slew of deadline day signings, I remember thinking to myself that perhaps that 8-2 loss at Old Trafford would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Clearly, such an embarrassing demolition job at the hands of Arsenal’s greatest rivals at the time had prompted much-needed action in the transfer market. Maybe the banter I weathered from Manchester United and other fans in the weeks following would turn out to be worth it.

It took longer than I would have preferred, but ultimately that theory was proven right.

Both players became important pieces of some of Arsène Wenger’s final Arsenal teams. Both players wore the armband for the club. Both players lifted silverware in the form of multiple FA Cups — Mertesacker won three while Arteta managed only two, having retired from playing before the Gunners won it in 2017.

But that has turned out to be the least of their contributions. Mertesacker returned to Arsenal to head up the club’s academy. Under his stewardship, Hale End produced talents like Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Folarin Balogun, Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Max Dowman, and Marli Salmon. All of these footballers have graduated to first-team status and, whether at Arsenal or other clubs, gone on to become impressive senior players.

Arteta has utilized some of these young academy products, along with several astute signings, elite tactics, and a world class vision for the club, to propel Arsenal to the summit of English football. Under the Spanish manager, the Gunners have won their first Premier League title in 22 years. After hoisting that trophy at Selhurst Park on Sunday, they will prepare for their first Champions League final in exactly two decades. Arteta has irrefutably made Arsenal one of the best teams in the world right now.

And that should be celebrated like it might not happen again for quite some time. I hope Arsenal supporters continue to gather outside the Emirates Stadium. I hope they keep singing and dancing and partying. I know I’ll be. The opportunity to live it up, to bask in the glory, to flaunt it before a footballing world that did not want to see this club succeed, should not be taken for granted.

But another such opportunity awaits Arteta and his men. While Arsenal are the picture of success and continuity right now, their rivals all seem to be currently experiencing instability in one form or another. Every potential challenger for the next Premier League title or two appear far more imperfect than the Gunners do.

On Friday, City officially confirmed that Pep Guardiola would depart the club in the summer after ten years in charge. The man who won 20 titles in a decade for the Cityzens is leaving with a stand named after him and no plans to manage another team for a while (or so he says). Bernardo Silva and John Stones are also leaving City, with Rodri additionally linked to a move abroad.

Enzo Maresca is set to take over for the exiting Spaniard. The former Chelsea and Leicester manager is admittedly an impressive tactical mind with a burgeoning reputation. And City will still be a destination for top talent in the transfer market; Elliot Anderson has been heavily linked while reports of Maresca being intent on signing Enzo Fernández have also emerged recently. But recreating the dominance Guardiola exacted upon the Premier League would be some feat by the Italian.

Elsewhere, Liverpool appear to be entering a transitional period. Mohamed Salah is leaving the club where he became a legend. Andy Robertson is set to move on as well, while it also appears likely that Alisson Becker will seek a new challenge too. Virgil van Dijk will probably continue on for the Reds, but he looks far removed from the height of his powers now.

The signings that Liverpool made last summer that seemingly made them overwhelming favorites to become repeat champions haven’t panned out as well as the club will have hoped. Last summer I said the attack-focused acquisitions would be like putting a machine gun turret on top of a Jenga tower and, well, I don’t think I was far off. Jeremie Frimpong seems to be trusted more as a right winger than as a right back. Milos Kerkez has struggled enough that Robertson has often been preferred over him by the manager. Florian Wirtz has so far failed to justify his record transfer fee, only producing on an irregular basis. And Alexander Isak, despite his immense talent, continues to be rather injury-prone.

Liverpool’s best signing from the summer of 2025, Hugo Ekitike, also presents as a concern heading into next season. The French forward suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon against Paris Saint-Germain last month. Despite looking like a genuine superstar at times this season, how much he can contribute in the next campaign appears very uncertain.

Then there’s Arne Slot. The Dutch manager has orchestrated one of the underwhelming Premier League title defenses in recent memory, often appearing more intent on critiquing the prominence of set pieces in English football than on adapting his team to that landscape. Much of Liverpool’s fanbase have soured greatly on him over the course of the season, with many demanding his sacking in the offseason. However, the club’s ownership appear ready to stick with Slot for the 2026/27 campaign.

Back in London, Chelsea look like an utter disaster. Entering the final Premier League matchday, the Blues are at risk of finishing outside of the European places. They have fired two different managers over the course of the season and have now hired Xabi Alonso, still smarting from being sacked by Real Madrid himself, to take over in the summer. In the meantime, Chelsea’s owners have admitted they need to reexamine their sporting model.

Alonso is another talented manager, and Chelsea will continue to sign talented young players. But without Champions League football and entering a period of soul-searching, they look unlikely to entice the best footballers on the market. Additionally, they appear to be in a precarious position financially — at the beginning of last month, Chelsea announced the largest pre-tax loss in Premier League history. They are in serious debt, and recent changes in the league’s financial rules now prevent them from employing loopholes like selling themselves hotels or offloading their women’s team. Out of the teams I’ve mentioned so far, Chelsea are by far in the biggest spot of trouble.

Things look much rosier for Manchester United, who are returning to the Champions League next season and ended this one in pretty excellent form. Michael Carrick has earned a permanent contract as United’s manager while fan favorite academy product Kobbie Mainoo has been awarded a new deal as well. The vibes are admittedly immaculate with the Red Devils right now.

However, it should be noted that United played only 40 matches this season. That will change with midweek European football in the 2026/27 campaign, and it remains to be seen how they adapt to that. Additionally, Carrick has not yet demonstrated he has the chops to return the club he played for to the upper echelon of the English top flight. Let’s not forget, he was sacked by Middlesborough less than a year ago. While he has done extremely well as the caretaker manager this season, the future will present him with a different challenge.

In the meantime, Arsenal are comfortably the best they’ve looked in 20 years. They have just been crowned Premier League champions. In a week’s time the Gunners will take on PSG in hopes of becoming Champions League title holders for their first time in the club’s history. It could very well be the case that we are witnessing the greatest season Arsenal have ever had.

In any event, they will enter this offseason with at least one major trophy under their belts. Given their success this season and the resulting revenue, as well as lucrative sponsorships that keep rolling in, the Gunners are on the verge of becoming the richest club in England. The Arsenal fanbase has shown itself to be an utterly gargantuan one, capable of flooding north London with people at a moment’s notice on a Tuesday night. And of course, the club is located in one of the world’s most famous and popular cities. So when the summer transfer market opens, Arsenal Football Club will be among the most attractive destinations in the sport for almost every player that can move.

Some of those players will almost certainly be the most elite attackers the Gunners can sign; at the time of writing, Arsenal have already been linked to Julián Alvarez, Bradley Barcola, and Eli Junior Kroupi, among others. With the pieces that make up probably the best defense in Europe almost assuredly retained for next season, the champions will turn their attention toward upgrading their attack. Next season’s squad should almost certainly contain more lethal finishers and skillful attackers who can kill off games more reliably.

Whichever players come in this summer, they will join a roster of winners. The current Arsenal squad now know they can win the Premier League, now truly feel they are worthy of that trophy. They will be eager to defend their title, and they will play critical games next season without the pressure of failure burdening them. We will see a surer, more confident Arsenal in the 2026/27 campaign with the weight of 22 title-less years lifted from their shoulders.

There won’t be nerves. There won’t be anxiety. There will just be focus on the task at hand and the freedom of already having lifted the trophy they’re chasing.

Incidentally, the key players in this Arsenal team have plenty more to give. Saka is still only 24 years old, as are Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori, and Piero Hincapié. William Saliba only just turned 25, while his center back partner Gabriel is 28. Declan Rice, Martín Zubimendi, Martin Ødegaard, and Kai Havertz will all still be 27 when next season begins. Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres will have just turned 28. David Raya, currently 30, is right in his prime as a goalkeeper. The majority of these players are on new contracts or will reportedly be offered new deals in the summer. This is a squad that have just entered their winning window.

And they have done so at a moment when it is unclear which of the big clubs is equipped to properly challenge them. I suspect City will remain formidable while United and Liverpool shall have their moments but ultimately will end up competing for Champions League places. It’s probably a little early to make these sorts of projections, but it currently seems that Arsenal’s rivals not named Tottenham Hotspur are more likely to recede toward the rest of the Premier League pack than they are to immediately reinvent themselves into potential contenders.

What this all means is that the Gunners have a chance to capitalize on the potential runway to more trophies in front of them. If they sign proper upgrades in attack and continue to play at the level they have demonstrated for most of this season, they can dominate English football for the next few years. They have a genuine opportunity to create a dynasty.

This season began with the Arteta era at Arsenal under serious threat. Many people, including football pundits and supporters of the club alike, will tell you that the very existence of this project was on the line. If the Gunners didn’t win something major, it likely would have marked the end of this particular story. Important players would have felt they couldn’t go again after four second-placed finishes and accordingly left for greener pastures. Arsenal probably wouldn’t have sacked him, but Arteta himself may have felt his time was up. Fortunately, we live in a timeline in which this didn’t happen.

This Premier League title does not have to be all this group win. These players and this manager will be rearing to go again, especially if they are successful in Budapest. With so many of them desperate to bring success to the club, they will want to add as much silverware as they can during the window they have. And seeing how good this team is, how stable Arsenal currently are, and the landscape around them, I’m confident there is more to come from Arteta and his men. This is only the beginning.

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