Arsenal Champions

It wasn't easy, but Arsenal finally got over the line. Man City looked to have clawed their way back to parity at one point, closing a 9 point gap (albeit one with a game to spare). But they could not win against Everton, and when they drew against Bournemouth, the title finally returned to Arsenal. I thought Arsenal were going to win the EPL in 2023, when they built a commanding lead for the beginning of the season, but I guess now is better late than never.

The games were difficult. One particularly wrenching game was the one against West Ham. Arsenal, at that time, needed to win it. There was a goal at the end by West Ham, but it was disallowed. That goal could have given West Ham 1 more point. It wouldn't have made up the gap with Tottenham, but I don't know if it would have given them a psychological edge.

Then the next game was against Burnley. It was regarded as an easy one, as was the one against Crystal Palace. But they are only easy because Arsenal already had the psychological advantage of being ahead of Man City at this crucial point. Those games were nervy 1-0 wins, and they wouldn't have given Arsenal much of a goal difference advantage, but winning the league is all about grinding out the wins during squeaky bum time.

Ultimately, after Arsenal got derided as “bottlers”, it was Man City who bottled it. Man City did not bottle the title challenge during that first unforgettable premier league title in 2012, when they had to score 2 goals within 10 minutes. They didn't bottle it either in 2022, when they had to score 3 goals within 30 minutes. They did bottle it in a few FA cup finals and a few European knockout matches. But this Man City side are a young side who was a refresh of the older Man City side with the old warhorses. So they'll have to learn how to be title contenders all over again.

Arsenal did lose title challenges in 2023 and 2024. But the 2023 side were unexpectedly thrust into this position. There were different versions of Arsenal: the one that played exciting attacking football, the one that played very cautious and defensive, the one that relied on set pieces and gamesmanship. Ultimately, Arsenal managed to get over the line after trying every trick in the book.

Arsenal winning the premier league happened to me during the years which I regarded as rites of passage. They won the league when I took my PSLE, when I passed my Grade 8 and exited my tweens, when I ORDed from the army, when I graduated. And again after a very rough start to my working life which settled in.

And after that, it was failure after failure. The Wenger years after the invincibles were really painful to watch. Even when Arsenal were at their best, they tended to have a soft underbelly. Especially the 02 03 season, when Arsene Wenger said that he could go a full season unbeaten. Then his side bottled it. And people don't remember this because the following season, he actually managed to achieve that feat.

There were the various collapses. Arsenal's title chasing collapse in 07 08 was quite painful, because at one point it seemed that they could go on to win a title. Arsenal tend to start seasons well and tail off at the end. I don't know if this has some effect on their psyche.

The really significant part now is: what does it augur for me? Which milestone have I reached in my life? Am I ready to be the head of my household? Am I moving forward with my career?

Another thing is that Arsenal have ended a very long title drought. To be fair, a lot of title droughts ended in my lifetime.

Nottingham Forest (1979, first time)

Aston Villa (1910 to 1981)

Everton (1970-85)

Arsenal (1971-89)

Leeds (1974-92)

Manchester United (1967-93)

Blackburn Rovers (1914-95)

Chelsea (1955-2005)

Man City (1968-2012)

Leicester City (2016, first time)

Liverpool (1990-2020)

Arsenal (2004-26)

There will probably not be another title drought broken for a very long time, unless there are changes to the big six. The next big drought will be Man U and Chelsea, and it's strange but those 2 did dominate football together for around 10 years between 2004 and 2013, and they are the ones in drought. If Tottenham break their duck, it will be very massive, but I don't think they will.

I think Arsenal will win another title. But I don't know if they have what it takes to build a dynasty. This will be the first time in quite a while we have neither Klopp or Guardiola in the premier league. Those two are like the Wenger and Ferguson of 20 years earlier.

One of the most impressive things is when a manager comes into a mid table side, rebuilds the whole club, and turns it into a winning machine. Bill Shankly did that with Liverpool. Brian Clough did that with Derby, and their second title should have been credited to him. Matt Busby did that with Man U. Don Revie with Leeds. Arsene Wenger with Arsenal. Jose Mourinho with Chelsea, albeit with financial doping. Jurgen Klopp with Liverpool, and Pep Guardiola with Man City. With all due respect to Roberto Mancini, although he did bring the club forward.

Ferguson did that with man U, most famously. The first title winning side had little in common with the people who were already there. He had to clear out Paul McGrath – even though McGrath was still good enough to excel for Aston Villa years later. There are the people you had to get out of the system. The first title winning side had Brian McClair, Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes from the old side. The rest were people he brought in. Similarly, Arteta had to find a way to get rid of Aubamayeung and Ozil, and Lacazette had to be released. He had to be very ruthless with his goalkeepers. First, he got rid of Bernard Leto, and brought in Aaron Ramsdale. And even Ramsdale was not good enough. He was only good enough for a team fighting for the UCL places, and David Raya was the one who would win you the EPL. Emile Smith Rowe was another one let go, although he's obviously good enough for Fulham.

When Arsene Wenger won the league with Arsenal, his teams were famous for being the opposite of George Graham's “defend at all costs” style. Arsene Wenger's first team managed to combine the solid backline inherited from George Graham with the stylish and expressive attacking play up front. His later teams suffered because Wenger being able to build a solid team wasn't one of his biggest strengths. Mikel Arteta managed to mix and match Wenger's style with Mourinho's gamesmanship and Guardiola's tactical thinking. His side also peaked at the right time, when neither Klopp's Liverpool or Guardiola would have their amazing 90+ point seasons. Perhaps nobody would ever reach those heights again, because Man City and Liverpool have brought something new to the premiership that other people have dissected and worked out.

Perhaps the EPL would dominate Europe to an extent that they did during the first 7 years of my life, when they basically won 6 out of 7 European Cups. The new Europa League and Europa Conference League is a bit of a disaster because English teams have been winning many of the prizes: Aston Villa, West Ham, Chelsea, Tottenham and maybe even Crystal Palace.

But a lot of credit to Arsenal for coming in first in a super competitive English Premier League, although Klopp and Guardiola leaving has made it less competitive for quite a while. Next year will be harder, because Chelsea will improve under Xabi Alonso, Liverpool aren't going to have 2 bad seasons in a row – either they'll improve or Arne Slot will leave. Man United will have better players and a better manager in Michael Carrick. Man City won't have Guardiola, but will inherit the team that was starting to gel together.

The most important thing for me, though, is this superstition that something interesting will happen to my life when Arsenal wins the league. It is a very unexpected drought. But Arteta, Wenger and George Graham all have had their doubters. George Graham was up against the greatest Liverpool side. Wenger had to wrest the throne from Man U who managed to defend it against Aston Villa, Blackburn and Newcastle. He had to come up with something special. Arteta brought Arsenal to a level very similar to Wenger's: never the greatest side ever (except during their invincibles season). But they were always near enough to the title that they could win it if Man U slipped up. Arteta's side winning wasn't much of a surprise, and was a long time coming. But he also had doubters, because this was Arteta's first job, and Arteta's not as much of a great manager as Guardiola or Klopp were. Still, he was willing to try every trick in the book to get Arsenal through.

I guess the previous droughts were shorter. George Graham was playing an extreme form of 80s ultra-defensive football. Arsene Wenger went in the opposite direction. That said, a drought of 22 years was a very long time, and Wenger was responsible for 14 of those years. His best chance at killing that drought was during the 15 16 season. I think that the fact that Arsenal lost the league to Leicester made me almost give up on that club. The next season started a long streak of Arsenal finishing behind Tottenham in the table. Maybe it was the failed title challenges in 2008, 2011, 2016, 2023, 2024 which made me question whether Arsenal would ever win the league again.

But Arteta, just like George Graham and Arsene Wenger were saviour figures at the club. They weren't people like Ancelotti, Pellegrini, Ranieri or Conte, who came in to give an already great club something extra special to get them over the line. He had to build it back up from a mid table side to a champion's league regular, and finally, a champion. And this time, hopefully Arsenal wouldn't have their progress disrupted from having to pay to build a stadium, so maybe no more long periods of disappointment. Which means, if they were to win the league more regularly from now on, it might be an omen that I might move forward with my life.

I've always been quite a reluctant Arsenal fan. I've never believed that I should be a great supporter of a team not from a city I live in. But it's mainly because of this superstition that Arsenal winning the league is a door opening in my life to something. I don't really know what. And I don't have any anxiety anymore about Arsenal going for a long time without winning the league. Somehow time just flies.

Unfortunately, Hearts wasn't good enough to win the Scottish league, and very unfortunately had to play against Celtic in the season decider. They didn't break their duck like I had hoped. But well we can't have everything go our way in a season.

Title Chasers

I think about all the time when I followed a football team as they went through a league title challenge. One of the most amazing title challenges was in 1989, and that was immortalized in the book and movie “Fever Pitch”, when Arsenal nicked Liverpool at the end to win the league title. It would also be near the end of Liverpool's imperious reign at the top of English football.

The first league battle that I witnessed was when Singapore got relegated in 1992. The most amazing thing was that they started that season with a few league wins and were at the top of the table in early rounds. I don’t know how and why, but we ended up sliding down the table and we got relegated to the second division.

In 1993, we had to climb back up. There were a few Singaporean stars who were playing for Malaysian state clubs. I think Singapore’s relegation guilt-tripped them into returning to Singapore to turn out for the Lions. It was a relatively easy thing to win that league, although for some reason, Selangor was relegated at the same year as we were, and we had to make sure that we didn’t finish the league second to Selangor.

The Malaysian League is not as important as it is in English football. It’s a lot like the regular season in American sports, just to figure out who qualifies for the knockout round at the end, and it’s the cup knockout that really matters. But in 1994, Singapore was challenging for the title, after getting their best players together and week in, week out, we were trying to stay ahead of Kedah, and I think we played Kedah in one of the final matches, and ended up beating them. The title run-in, I recall, was very exciting, especially when we were going to play at some of the stronger sides in the league, like Kedah or Sabah.

In 1995, one of the biggest catastrophes took place in Singapore football, when we were asked to leave the Malaysia Cup for the penultimate time. This coincided with the rise of the premier league. The local football scene was never the same after this.

So I turned my attention to the premier league race. The 94/95 season turned out to have a very exciting title race. It was Man U vs Blackburn. Blackburn were chasing their first title since before the first World War. Man U had done a great job of narrowing the gap to Blackburn, but were unable to win it. They could have won if they won their last match, but didn’t. The sight of Blackburn winning the league in spite of losing their final match is one of my first great football memories.

There was that Man U vs Newcastle during the following season, with Newcastle surrendering a lead that was 12 points at Christmas. Then there was the first of 7 Arsenal vs Man U title rivalries, which Arsenal won first in 97/98. It’s a bit hard to exaggerate how much of a shock it was to see Arsene Wenger come in from nowhere and run away with the title, especially since they were mid table over Christmas. The only other manager who came in and grabbed a team by the scruff of the neck and made them champions – the only team which did it so abruptly was Conte’s Chelsea, when he took the team that Mourinho built and then dismantled all the way to the title. Even the Leicester miracle wasn’t that much of a surprise because they were already in red hot form during the relegation escape the previous season.

In hindsight, Man U lost the title in 1998 because of an injury to Roy Keane, and Eric Cantona retiring. The following year they got Yorke, Blomquist and Stam. And got Roy Keane back. It was another tight league challenge, and only decided on the last day. Arsenal made it to the semifinals of the FA cup. It would have been another great season for them, but it was completely overshadowed by Man U seizing the treble.

Man U won the next 2 league titles easily. But in 01-02, Man U threatened to make it 4 in the row. Instead, Ferguson made a rare error of trying to get Veron into the famous Man U midfield. Instead, he broke up the great quartet of Keane-Scholes-Beckham-Giggs. Veron would have tried to introduce a slower, more tactical game, than what the rest of the team were used to. Arsenal, though, had a new generation of players blossoming into an extremely formidable attack: Ljungberg, Henry and Pires. There were title challenges that went all the way in 01-02 and 02-03. It was a shame that Arsenal never got their three-peat because they let the 02-03 title slip. But there was a time when it seemed that the balance of power had permanently shifted from Man U to Arsenal.

The invincibles season saw Arsenal march to the title without Man U or Chelsea being able to stop them. Then Chelsea came with the moneybags. Ranieri had done fairly well with Chelsea, and lifted them into 2nd, and knocked Arsenal out of the champions League. But he was fired, a little harshly, and replaced by Mourinho. (He would get his revenge more than 10 years later by winning the title with Leicester 1 year after Mourinho’s last title with Chelsea). I always thought that Ranieri was unlucky to get sacked as Chelsea manager but his title win with Leicester was a stroke of luck that balanced the earlier bad luck.

Chelsea won 2 league titles during Mourinho’s first 2 seasons. So for 3 years in a row, there was no proper title race. But during the 06-07 season, especially when Man U had an attack that had Ronaldo, Rooney, Saha and Tevez in it, Man U came storming back. The period from 01 to 06 saw Man U being relatively mediocre under Alex Ferguson, but he slowly put together a spine of another great team – probably his last great team. Man U and Chelsea were battling it out all the way. In 06-07. In 07-08, it was a 3 way struggle with Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea. In 08-09, it was Man U vs Liverpool. In 09-10, it was Man U vs Chelsea. Every year was a big title challenge. Then after a relatively easy title in 10-11, there was that amazing end to the season in 11-12 when it was finally clear that Man City’s era was beginning and Man U’s era was ending. Given Man City’s dominance in Manchester since Alex Ferguson’s retirement, it seems even quaint now that they ever called Man City the “noisy neighbours”.

There was an epic title race in 13-14. It may have been Brendan Rodger's greatest achievement to take Liverpool to within a whisker of the title. Steve Gerrard will always be associated with 3 runners up seasons in 02, 09 and 14. But the 14 season is probably the most tragic, because he gave away a crucial goal in the defeat to Chelsea and the draw against Crystal Palace. It was the slipping on his butt that was the most visibly tragic aspect of the whole thing. The 14 team had up and coming players like Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho: the 09 team had Mascherano, Torres, Pepe Reina and Xabi Alonso. Great players, almost good enough to win. Ultimately, you needed a team that was almost as good as Pep Guardiola's centurions, the Liverpool team in 2019 which won the champions league and got 97 points – and the next year you'd get over the line. The team which won in 19 may have been better than the one in 20, but the one in 20 won because Man City was undergoing a rebuilding that was between Guardiola's first and second great teams.

And now we have Arsenal again. The first year that Arteta was around, Arsenal failed to get any European competition at all, and they were behind Tottenham. Then he almost got them into the champions league places but failed. Then he got them within touching distance of the title in 2023, but, as in 1999, finished second to a side that won the treble. They came close again in 2024, this time being more defensive, but failing to score the goals that would win them enough games. In 2025, their nemesis Man City did not challenge for the title, but Liverpool, with the side that Klopp left behind, marched to the title without any major obstructions.

Finally, we have the Arsenal side of 25/26. For the first half of the season, they were clearly better than Man City. But Man City was merely transitioning from Pep's second great team to his third, and his rebuilding was starting to bear fruit towards the end. Arsenal had only ever had one great team during the premier league era. The George Graham side which won the league in 89 and 91 were a good but not great team, whose stars were actually the back line of Adams / Bould / Dixon / Winterburn / Keown. Wenger's side was exceptional in the sense that it was assembled cheaply and he managed to pick up bargain stars like Vieira, Petit, Overmars and Anelka, to add to Bergkamp, Wright and the defence of the old warhorses. But they were not clearly better than the Man U treble side. Only the side which had Henry, Campbell and company was clearly the best in the world and could win the league easily, no matter how short lived it was.

The trials and tribulations of this side has been mentioned earlier. They were 9 points clear at one point, albeit with a game in hand. Then they managed to lose a cup final and a league match to a resurgent Man City, which highly suggests that they can be challenging for the title next season. They also got knocked out of the FA Cup to a lower league Southampton. Man City, Liverpool and Man U will be stronger next season than this one. And that suggests that Arsenal's greatest and best chance to win the league will be this season. They dropped points against quite a few mid table sides. Wolves. Brentford. Bournemouth. Nottingham Forest. It's only that Man City were so bad that they could afford to do this.

In the UCL, they had an easy path to the final. Barcelona and Inter Milan were already eliminated, Real Madrid has Mbappe and Bellingham to destroy a good team spirit, and Bayern and PSG will thankfully eliminate one of the other, so Arsenal only has to beat one of them. But the winner of that tie will be the favourite because their attacking football is so irresistable.

But they have one foot in the UCL final, and could be looking at a great double. In the 22 years that Arsenal have not won the premier league, there have been relatively few title challenges. They were mostly content to take a champions league place. The title challenge of 08 fizzled out after the traumatic leg break of Eduardo and Gallas' tantrum. Then in 11, a promising season fizzled out after their nemesis Birmingham City upset them in the league cup final. And to add insult to injury, they lost 8-2 to Man U in the opener of the next season. (Although to their credit, they went out and bought Arteta the next day). There were good half seasons followed by collapses. There was 2016, when they beat Leicester City home and away, and after that, they celebrated, even though there was nothing to celebrate other than getting a title challenge back on track. They subsequently collapsed and left it to Tottenham to do the chasing. They had nothing to show in these 22 years other than 1 UCL final, 1 Europa league final, and a few FA cups.

25 26 is that season that resembles 2016, where the traditional title challengers are hibernating. Man U's rebuilding stalled when Ruben Amorim refused to change his tactics. Liverpool bought expensively and failed to make their squad gel as much as they should have (and maybe they were also mourning Diogo Jota). Man City were only putting the final pieces on their rebuild, although they did transition from a side that tried to park the bus against Arsenal to a free flowing and attacking side, although they'll now have to replace Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

The next few matches will determine their season. They look easy, but they've already slipped on a few banana peels. They do not have the luxury of slipping on any more. The next 2 matches are against Atletico Madrid at home, which is winnable but it is never easy against them. West Ham looks easy but it is a must win for West Ham in order to avoid relegation. Then Burnley and Crystal Palace look easy but Arsenal must not slip up. And if Arsenal are in the UCL final, then it will be against the side which can score goals for fun. 4 or 5 matches to define their season. If Arsenal win trophies, it will be one of their greatest ever seasons. If they don't then everything will be harder next year.

What I do remember about supporting a team which wins the title is what winning feels like. It feels like a steady march. Milestones go by, targets get hit. Lesser teams get swatted aside. There is this anticipation, this intense fixation against the teams they have to face. I still remember that during the 93 and 94 Malaysia cup and league seasons, people were anxiously studying the stronger sides like Kedah, Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang. I remember the live commentary on the radio.

Football is ergodic. That is mathematics speak for saying that every possibility will come up. We've seen improbable things. Mourinho is still celebrated for the last 2 times when dark horses won the UCL – in Porto and Inter. Man U got transformed from a juggernaut to a struggling team in the middle of maybe 2-3 decades of league title drought. Leicester City won a league, an FA cup, and then 2 relegations. Brentford / Bournemouth / Brighton are the new mid table sides. Bolton / Charlton / Stoke / Birmingham were the old mid table sides.

Southampton, Sunderland, Coventry and Ipswich have made returns to the premier league after long absences. Tottenham could still get relegated 1 season after breaking a trophy drought. Everton could escape relegation after a fight. Liverpool could break one of the most infamous league droughts of all time. West Ham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Middlesborough, Wigan and Crystal Palace could win trophies.

We could witness Hearts winning the Scottish League, and the first time since Alex Ferguson that a team not from Glasgow did it.