Twenty-two years. That is how long it has been since Arsenal last stood atop English football, since the Invincibles carved their names into history and the trophy cabinet gathered dust ever since. On Sunday, that wait ends. The final whistle at Selhurst Park will not just close a Premier League season. It will trigger a coronation.
Arsenal travel to Crystal Palace with the title already secured, 82 points on the board and a goal difference of +43. The match itself is a formality. The trophy lift afterward is not. Mikel Arteta's squad will climb the steps at an away ground and finally hold what this club has chased across two decades of near-misses, banter-era humiliations, and the slow, painstaking rebuild under a manager few believed in when he arrived.
This was not meant to happen this way. When Pep Guardiola announced his departure from Manchester City, the assumption was that Arsenal's window had passed too. Instead, Arteta's side learned what the previous iterations never did: how to close. Nine key statistics have been cited to explain how they did it, but the simplest one is that they stopped dropping points they should not drop (2).
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William Saliba did not wait for the champagne to dry before shifting the conversation. "I want more," he said, and the Champions League final against PSG is now the only thing on the horizon that matters (4). Saliba's hunger reflects something genuine about this squad. The title, for all its emotional weight, already feels like a starting point rather than a destination.
The final itself is laced with subplots. Achraf Hakimi may be too short on fitness to start for PSG, which would remove one of their most dangerous wide threats (13). Luis Enrique is reportedly preparing a surprise in his starting XI, though whether that signals tactical innovation or desperation is unclear (5). Arsenal, by contrast, know exactly who they are. That clarity has been their superpower all season.
Off the pitch, the week brought its irritations. The Champions League final will not be free-to-air in the UK for the first time in 34 years, a decision that has drawn criticism and even a request from Keir Starmer for TNT Sports to reconsider (1) (11). For a fanbase that has waited so long for moments like these, the barrier of a paywall stings.
The transfer mill is already grinding. Arsenal have made contact for Leicester's 16-year-old winger Jeremy Monga, priced at £15m, while Manchester United are competing for Sporting CP defender Maxi Araujo and West Ham's Mateus Fernandes (8) (12) (14) (15). An unnamed Arsenal player has been offered to Galatasaray (18). These are the background rhythms of a club that cannot afford to stand still.
Next week belongs entirely to the Champions League final. The question is whether Arsenal can do what no English club has done since Manchester United in 2008 and win the double. Saliba wants more. So does Arteta. So does every fan who has watched this team grow from a project into a powerhouse. The wait for the Premier League is over. A bigger wait might end in Paris.
