Arsenal Title Win Musings – it’s been a long road!

Yet the obsession started in the summer, when I had no idea Arsenal just won the league, let alone went unbeaten. Euro 2004 was the first football tournament that hooked me. I cheered for England – and captain David Beckham – for reasons I cannot explain myself. I was not born in the UK.

The same way I cannot explain why I started supporting Arsenal. My family do not follow football – well, not of their own free will anyway – I strong-armed them into the English Premier League, Champions League and just about every major international tournament since 2004 through my sheer willpower.

When people ask how come I support Arsenal, the only decent answer I can think of is the famous Dennis Bergkamp quote. My support didn’t falter when Thierry Henry left, when Cesc Fabregas followed suit – not even when Arsene Wenger stepped down. The ownership, the management, the players, the stadium never mattered. Well, they did, because they are part of an entity I care about deeply – but even if Arsenal played at Vitality Stadium in League Two I would still cheer them on.

My support never wavered, but my optimistic outlook did, several times. The biggest emotionally-breaking point for me was Arsene Wenger’s last season, 2017-18. The Gunners were so exceptionally crap away from home in the league that it’s a wonder they finished 6th.

I distanced myself to protect my sanity. I could no longer watch every game, read every press conference and scroll through every tweet. It was too painful, it started impacting my mood and my life in an unhealthy way.

Then came Mikel Arteta, with a steely look in his eye. He has been consistent in what he wants from his players and where he sees the club from day one. But despite his enormous – and obvious – determination to put things right, it was far from smooth sailing. The Gunners finished 8th in back-to-back seasons, crashed out of the Europa League to a God-awful Villarreal team (managed by Unai Emery, just to rub it in) and crashed and burned three years ago with the title in sight – as Saliba’s injury derailed our hopes. The collapse looked mental more than anything else, which raised serious question marks over whether the culture that permeated the club transcended the players and the management.

And even this season has been far from smooth sailing. As City struggled up until January, I bemoaned every dropped point. Liverpool, Man United, Nottingham, Brentford, Wolves. We could have pulled away by beating teams we are supposed to beat as champions-elect – teams so far down the table or so badly out of form that it was puzzling how we contrived to drop points against them. It reeked of the same old Arsenal, the club always ready for a heroic effort vs the big shots only to then drop points to minnows in most unimaginable ways possible.

Then came back-to-back Bournemouth and City losses as Arsenal struggled to score. The mockery from pundits and rival fans was almost too much to bear. We seemed to be shooting ourselves in the foot during the exact season our rivals were not up to scratch.

And then we didn’t. “It’s not done” Declan Rice said after the City loss, which could have been a win but for a missing half-rotation of the ball when Eze struck. And Rice meant it. 4 wins later, 3 of them extremely nerve-wrecking, Arsenal were looking for Bournemouth to do them a favour so they could wrap up the title early. And Kroupi Junior obliged. Yes, Bournemouth had a CL place to play for, but which Arsenal fan cares about that?

I didn’t sleep last night. I’m battered but it’s the happiest I’ve been since, well…  the birth of my daughter 3 years ago. And the happiest I have been as an Arsenal fan. I’m drinking it all in: the happy Gooners all over the world, the beautiful photos (although some are AI-generated, I suspect), the posts on blogs and social media, the salty tears of everyone who wanted us to fail for reasons I can’t understand – and don’t care to analyse.

Arsenal stuck it to all the haters big time and it’s a thing of beauty. This Arsenal batch won’t be remembered as nearly men – nor should they. We have a special group on our hands and this morning I firmly believe yesterday was just the start of the journey, not its culmination.