Arsenal have won the Premier League to end a 22-year wait for a title and break a run of three successive seasons as runners-up.
The Gunners were confirmed as champions with a game to spare thanks to Man City slipping up at Bournemouth in a 1-1 draw, with the gap still four points with only one game remaining.
City had been on the back foot for the entirety of the second half after Eli Kroupi Junior’s stunning 39th-minute opener, and while Erling Haaland was able to snatch a stoppage-time equaliser, it was too little, too late for Pep Guardiola who is expected to leave the club at the end of the season.
Mikel Arteta’s side will now travel across London to Crystal Palace on the final day of the 2025/26 season as champions, having clinched the club’s 14th title, the third-most in English football history, but a first since their 2004 “Invincibles”.
Follow our live blog for all the latest reaction from Arsenal’s title win:
Inside Arsenal’s Premier League triumph and the crucial intervention that turned the title race
As Mikel Arteta finally gets to savour the moment, he will be repeating a few words he couldn’t help ruminate on throughout the season. “Twenty-two years,” he’d say to anyone listening. “Twenty-two years. It’s far too long for a club like Arsenal.”
And now, after so much angst and frustration from the length of that very wait, Arteta and his squad can at last say it’s over. On Sunday, he will lift the Premier League trophy, the club’s first title since 2004 and 14th in all.
The Basque, for his part, was more conscious than anyone of the effects of that wait. He could sense it through the season, that sudden danger when everything looked like slipping away in the manner that so many people expected.
If there has been one great virtue of Arsenal’s campaign, it is how Arteta has managed that; how he ensured the team stayed in control.
Five key games that took Arsenal to the title
Arsenal 1-0 Burnley (May 18)
It was not a vintage performance by any means, but it will be remembered as the game that put the club on the brink. Arsenal’s breakthrough arrived, as it so often has in their championship-winning campaign, from a corner (19 of Arsenal’s 69 Premier League goals have come from corners this season) with Havertz heading home in the 36th minute. The win meant City had to beat Bournemouth, and after Guardiola’s men came unstuck on the south coast, Arsenal were able to celebrate their first title in 22 years.
Five key games that took Arsenal to the title
Arsenal 3-0 Fulham (May 2)
Arsenal have been a bundle of nerves at the Emirates Stadium all season, but the shackles were off against Fulham with Gyokeres scoring twice and Bukayo Saka also on target. The home crowd were suddenly back onside, and the result moved Arsenal six points clear of City. Pep Guardiola’s side had two games in hand, but would end up drawing 3-3 with Everton to allow Arteta’s men to claw back the initiative.
Five key games that took Arsenal to the title
Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal (April 19)
Arteta’s side headed to the Etihad Stadium with just one win in five matches, and although they lost again, as Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland scored either side of Kai Havertz’s goal to take the title race out of their hands for the first time since October, it was not the bloodbath that some might have expected. Arsenal went toe-to-toe with City, and the performance provided them with renewed belief. At the final whistle, Declan Rice told his team-mates “it’s not done”, and the midfielder proved to be right. The Gunners used the “fuel” of losing to their title rivals as a springboard to winning their next four games without conceding.
Five key games that took Arsenal to the title
Arsenal 2-0 Everton (March 14)
Arsenal laboured against David Moyes’ well-drilled Everton side before Year 11 student Max Dowman’s introduction in the 74th minute changed the game, and the course of the title race, in the Gunners’ favour. Dowman provided Gyokeres’ opener with one minute left before the teenager, aged 16 years and 73 days, struck a stoppage-time breakaway goal to become the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.
Five key games that took Arsenal to the title
Tottenham 1-4 Arsenal (February 22)
Dropped points in draws at Brentford and then Wolves – where they surrendered a two-goal lead – prompted questions about Arsenal’s title mentality ahead of a trip to Spurs. However, Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze both scored twice as the Gunners ran riot at the home of their fierce rivals to silence their critics and move five points clear of City.
The all-important goal
Eli Junior Kroupi’s stunner put Arsenal on course for the title – and they never strayed from it.
Guardiola remains coy over exit reports
Pep Guardiola has remained coy over his future and has chosen not confirmed the reports surrounding his imminent exit at Manchester City.
He told Sky Sports: “I could say I have one more year of contract. I’m in a position I’ve had for many many years. It’s always from my experience, when you announce during the competition, it’s a bad result.
“The first person I have to talk to is my chairman. We decide when we finish the season, we’ll see and we’ll talk. It’s as simple as that and after that we’ll take the decision.
“I will not tell you here because I have to talk with my chairman, my players and my staff.”
He added: “I’m the happiest man in the planet to be in this club, this club is just extraordinary.”
Heartbreak for Man City
In Arsenal’s ecstasy comes Manchester City’s agony, on a day that looks set to go down as one of the most gut-wrenching in their history.
A last-gasp Erling Haaland strike was too little, too late at the Vitality as they failed to do what was required and beat Bournemouth, ending their title hopes going into the final day.
And on that final day, Pep Guardiola will by all accounts bid farewell after a glory-laden 10 years at the Etihad – news that has emerged over the past 24 hours.
Guardiola is about to speak to Sky Sports – let’s see what he has to say…
