Arsenal Crowned Premier League Champions – The Journey Continues
Arsenal finally have their hands on the Premier League trophy again, the long chase ending with a tight, nervy 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Confetti, noise, players embracing families on the pitch – it felt like a club exhaling after years of almost.
Mikel Arteta allowed himself a smile, a lap of honour, a moment with the silverware he has been chasing since the day he walked back through the doors at London Colney. Then he went straight back to work.
Because this is not the finish line. Not for him.
Champions of England – but not done yet
For three straight seasons, Arsenal had stared up at the summit and fallen just short. Runners-up, again and again, the narrative of a team learning the hard way how to win. This time, they held their nerve. This time, they finished.
Arteta knows exactly what that change in status means.
“I said to the boys that this shirt now represents something else,” he told reporters, framing the moment less as a celebration than a turning point. “We are the champions, and that brings a lot of confidence and a different kind of presence and energy to it. But as well, another kind of responsibility.”
That word – responsibility – hung in the air. Arsenal have climbed the mountain in England. The next peak is higher, steeper, and waiting in Budapest.
Budapest on the horizon
There is barely any time to bask. On Saturday, Arsenal walk into the biggest game in European football, a Champions League final against PSG that could redraw the club’s modern history in a single night.
Arteta is determined the Premier League party does not bleed into the week’s work.
“We need that energy to flow and going against that, I think it will be a big mistake,” he said. The title, the joy, the release – he wants all of it channelled, not calmed. “We talked about already what we have to do in Budapest, how we’re going to use all the incredible energy that we’re all carrying towards that final, and tomorrow we’re going to start to prepare it.”
Arsenal have never won the Champions League. Not under Arsène Wenger’s great sides, not in the years that followed. For all the Invincibles, all the artistry, Europe’s biggest prize has remained stubbornly out of reach.
Arteta is acutely aware of what is at stake now: not just a trophy, but immortality for this group.
“And we can’t wait to write a new chapter in the history of our club and lift the Champions League,” he said, not hiding his ambition. A domestic and continental double would not just crown a season; it would redefine an era.
From near-misses to “champions”
Arteta’s journey to this point has been anything but smooth. He walked into a fractured dressing room and a restless fanbase, won the FA Cup in 2020, then endured seasons of growing pains and late-season collapses that tested every belief he held about his project.
“Throughout this journey we have made some massive steps,” he reflected. “We have accomplished a lot of things that, in my opinion, have a lot of value. But at the end of the day, we are here to win major trophies. That was the ultimate goal.”
Three times, in three different run-ins, Arsenal fell away when it mattered most. The scars of those collapses shaped this title win as much as any tactical tweak.
“We came very close, and in three locations we fell short at the end, and that was very painful,” Arteta admitted. “But I think that’s what has driven all of us to find new ways to show what we are made of. That’s why I said that the manner that we’ve done it, it makes it even better.”
Now, as champions, he believes the psychological shift could be decisive under the lights in Budapest. This is no longer a side trying to prove it belongs at the top table. It arrives there wearing the crown of England.
Visualisation, vindication, and the next step
On the pitch at Selhurst Park, Arteta celebrated with his family, the image he had rehearsed in his mind finally becoming real. He has spoken before about visualisation, about seeing himself lifting major trophies. This time, the mental picture matched the moment.
“I’m the same one but I’m happier and relieved, I would say,” he confessed. The relief was obvious: years of work, doubt, and noise distilled into one trophy held aloft.
The job, though, has only grown.
“My job now and everybody at the club is going to be lift those standards now and achieve much more, because I think we are capable of doing it.”
That is the challenge he has thrown at his players. Being champions is no longer a dream; it is the baseline. The shirt, as he put it, “represents something else” now.
The Premier League trophy has finally returned to Arsenal. The question that will define this team is whether, in a few days’ time in Budapest, they can reach out and grab the one prize that has always slipped through the club’s fingers.
