Category: Football (Soccer)

Our photographer was outside the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal fans congregated to celebrate their team’s first title in 22 years

• ‘They’re not laughing any more’: Saka calls out critics

Arsenal fans erupted with joy in pubs and on the streets after the club was crowned Premier League champions, ending a 22-year drought. Arsenal claimed the title after rivals Manchester City drew 1-1 against Bournemouth, leaving Arsenal four points clear with one match to play

• ‘We’ve done it’: euphoria as Arsenal win first Premier League in a generation

Trusting a rookie coach to rebuild the club in late 2019 was a big call but after three runners-up finishes the Spaniard has delivered a long-awaited title

They say good things come to those who wait, and for Arsenal supporters it has felt like an eternity. Since their unforgettable 2003-04 season when Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles went the top-flight campaign unbeaten, their team had spent an incredible 984 days at the top of the table without being champions. Until now.

After all the disappointments of the late Wenger era and finishing as runners-up in the past three seasons, that unwanted statistic can finally be put to bed after a campaign in which Mikel Arteta’s side have shown they are capable of holding their nerve. There have been many doubters along the way, not least during a disastrous April during which Arsenal lost twice to their chief rivals, Manchester City, in a run of four consecutive domestic defeats in three competitions. But it is a triumph that rewards the faith shown by the hierarchy towards a rookie manager who arrived a week before Christmas in 2019 on a mission to restore them to former glories.

Tottenham’s woes in this corner of London are well-documented and long-established. When they made this latest trip to Stamford Bridge, the statistics showed they had won just once since 1990 – a sequence of 40 matches in all competitions.

Never mind. They needed only a point to effectively ensure their Premier League survival, to send West Ham down and draw a veil over this most wretched of seasons. It was a night when the hope pulsed until the last. Chelsea led through goals from the outstanding Enzo Fernández and Andrey Santos and yet Spurs rallied in the closing stages, refusing to accept it was their destiny to prolong the agony into the final round of matches.

• Arsenal win title for the first time since 2004

• Players celebrate together at training ground

• Reaction after Gunners crowned champions

Arsenal are Premier League champions for the first time since Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles in 2004 after Manchester City drew 1-1 at Bournemouth.

Arsenal’s squad and staff, including Mikel Arteta, gathered at the training ground in Hertfordshire to watch the game, with Declan Rice posting a picture on Instagram within minutes of the full-time whistle of him with Kai Havertz, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka, Myles Lewis-Skelly and William Saliba. “I told you all .. it’s done,” wrote the England midfielder in reference to his “It’s not done” battlecry after Arsenal lost to City last month.

Pep Guardiola kept quiet about his future after his team’s title challenge was ended by a brilliant Bournemouth side

“What are your dreams, what are your dreams?” To comprehend what drove Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, his interaction with autograph hunters in January 2025 after an 8-0 FA Cup win over Salford City is instructive.

The group comprises all younger people apart from one man who tells him: “I used to be a chef.” Guardiola’s reply cuts to the quick and reads as a mantra heard surely by the 85 players he used in 10 Premier League seasons. “Continue to do it. Prepare better,” he says.

The battle to avoid the drop will go to Sunday’s final day after Tottenham were beaten at Chelsea to keep West Ham alive

The players are out, hands have been shaken and preambles completed. Spurs are going to kick off, and they’re going to do it soon.

The players are in the tunnel! And over in Bournemouth, Manchester City are in arrears! As things stand, if no further goals are scored tonight, Arsenal will win the league and West Ham will be (all but) relegated.