Arsenal’s long pursuit of another Premier League crown is finally complete, and Bukayo Saka believes critics have gone quiet after the club sealed the title. Confirmation came when Manchester City drew 1-1 with Bournemouth, one day after Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Burnley kept pressure on the defending champions.
Arsenal finish the decisive midweek round with 82 points, enough to secure the Premier League trophy before the final day. A victory away to Crystal Palace on Sunday would move that tally to 85 points, taking Arsenal beyond Liverpool’s 84 points from the previous campaign.
This season’s success delivers Arsenal a 14th top-flight championship, and the first since the early 2000s, ending a 22-year title wait. Only Manchester United and Liverpool, with 20 league crowns each, have claimed more titles, while Arsenal now sit clear in third place in England’s historical rankings.
The 22-year gap between championships is the longest interval between top-flight titles since Liverpool’s 30-year drought from 1989-90 to 2019-20. Arsenal also join Liverpool as the only clubs to lift a top-flight crown in eight different decades, underlining how often both names appear in English football’s honours lists.
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Celebrations began almost immediately after the result at Etihad Stadium confirmed Arsenal’s triumph. Players joined supporters outside Emirates Stadium in the early hours of Wednesday, while more content appeared from the club’s training base, where a special blacked-out Premier League trophy display had been prepared to react to success.
Jurrien Timber shared a clip featuring Bukayo Saka standing beside that darkened trophy, which was built to light up once Arsenal became champions. In the video, Saka urged the activation and said: “Light that up, Saka says. Let me tell you something. Twenty-two years, 22 years. There was laughing, there was joking, they’re not laughing any more.”
Saka later posted another video showing defender Myles Lewis-Skelly celebrating with a champagne bottle. Lewis-Skelly, referencing past criticism of the squad, said: “They called us bottlers, said Lewis-Skelly. And now we’re holding the bottle.” Saka added more emphasis with the line: “Look, it is going to be shining, it is going to be shining bright.”
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With the title confirmed and one league match remaining, Arsenal’s focus now shifts to closing the season strongly at Crystal Palace while reflecting on a campaign that ended a 22-year title wait, added a 14th league crown and placed the club among English football’s most persistent champions.
Story first published: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 0:44 [IST]
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