Arsenal ended a 22-year wait to be crowned Premier League champions on Tuesday after Manchester City were held 1-1 by Bournemouth.
Mikel Arteta’s men held off the challenge of Pep Guardiola’s City to seal a long-awaited triumph with one game to spare.
AFP Sport looks at the key factors as the Gunners finally got over the line after three seasons as runners-up.
Reliable Raya
For the third consecutive year David Raya won the Golden Glove for most clean sheets in the Premier League, but this has been the Spaniard’s best season yet since joining from Brentford in 2023.
An ever-present in the league, Raya bookended the campaign with match-winning performances in vital 1-0 wins at Manchester United and West Ham.
A string of saves denied United on the opening day of the season.
And Raya was at the heart of one of the biggest moments of the season when a VAR review adjudged he had been fouled, ruling out West Ham’s stoppage-time equaliser earlier this month.
Minutes earlier he stood tall to save from Mateus Fernandes when the West Ham midfielder could have put the destiny of the title back in City’s hands.
“David Raya, for me, has to be the player of the season,” former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira told Sky Sports. “I think he was outstanding from the first game until the end of the season, I think he was really impressive.”
‘Set piece FC’
More than 40 percent of the Gunners’ Premier League goals this season have come from dead balls.
Of their 28 goals from set pieces, 18 have come from corners to set a new single-season Premier League record.
Often derided by rival fans as “Set Piece FC” for a lack of creativity, specialist coach Nicolas Jover has devised a series of inventive schemes to give Arsenal an edge.
Blessed with the precise delivery of Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, the Arsenal squad is packed with aerial threats their opponents have found impossible to keep out.
Dynamo Declan
Rice may have missed out to Bruno Fernandes as football writers’ player of the year, but the England midfielder has embodied a collective triumph for Arteta’s men.
The 27-year-old has amassed more than 4,000 minutes in all competitions in a tireless effort to deliver the title Arsenal envisioned when paying more than £100 million ($134 million) to beat City to the signing of Rice three years ago.
Rice has chipped in with four league goals and five assists but his work rate off the ball has been a key factor for Arsenal, who have the tightest defence in the league.
Strength in depth
Injuries played a ruinous role in Arsenal’s failed pursuit of Liverpool last season.
The decision to invest heavily in bulking out Arteta’s squad paid off despite injuries to Saka, Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber.
New signings Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera have all made significant contributions to get Arsenal over the line in the Premier League and within one game of winning the Champions League for the first time.
Rivals falter
Arsenal accumulated more points two years ago when they were pipped to the title by City despite winning 16 of their final 18 games.
Over the past decade City and Liverpool have often set the bar high, winning the league with more than 90 points.
This time 82 was enough to see Arsenal over the line.
Despite taking the title race into the final week of the campaign, City lacked the same consistency and relentlessness of Guardiola’s best sides.
Liverpool’s title defence imploded while Manchester United finished third despite sacking Ruben Amorim mid-season.
AFP
