HUNGER GAME: Gunner give it a go: Arsenal ready to ‘fight’ for more Premier League glory

The good news for Arsenal is that the English Premier League monkey that weighed them down for two decades has finally been flung off. In the 2025-26 campaign, the Gunners claimed the league title for the first time since they were crowned England’s best club back in 2004, under the tutelage of Arsène Wenger.

Last season, Spaniard Mikel Arteta emulated the Frenchman when he handed the London club just its fourth league title in the Premier League era, which began in 1992. The three previous times Arsenal conquered England were with Wenger, although he failed to defend the title after he had led the Gunners to it.

Arteta is hoping to do exactly that this season. If he is successful in orchestrating another winning campaign for the Londoners, the former Everton and Arsenal midfielder will join an exclusive club of managers who have won successive Premier League titles.

Since the inception of the English top flight in its current format 34 years ago, only Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), José Mourinho (Chelsea) and Manchester United legend Alex Ferguson have managed consecutive league titles. In his first two seasons in English soccer, backing up his claim of being the “special one”, Mourinho won the league between 2004 and 2006. Guardiola’s City side then rewrote history when they were crowned the best English side for four successive seasons between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 campaigns.

Before that City and Guardiola quadruple, the gold standard for successive league titles by a manager was Ferguson. The legendary Scottish tactician won the league three times in a row, twice, during his 26-year reign at Old Trafford. In addition, he won the league twice in a row on two occasions to truly set himself apart from the other managers in this exclusive club.

Arteta’s ambition

Arteta is hungry to join this elite group of soccer managers after tasting league success for the first time in his managerial career a few months ago. As a player, the 44-year-old’s sole domestic league triumph came when he played for Scottish side Rangers during the 2002-03 season.

“When you win something big like this, where you fight so much for it and you go through that emotion to win it again [after 20 years], you want it again,” Arteta said.

“That’s what we want. We need to push everybody every single day because if the standards are at that level, we’re going to make each other better. And we have an incredible squad, so let’s go for it because you want to go through it again. I want to live that moment again.

“I want to live other moments [like winning the European Champions League]. But we know what it’s going to take [to win the Premier League again]. We know the difficulty of the task – that’s why we’ve never done it before in this football club, to win it again. So we know that it’s going to demand something special and we are ready for it,” he added.

In their quest to retain the league title and win the Champions trophy for the first time, the Gunners have brought in players such as Christos Tzolis. The 24-year-old Greek winger was prolific in the Belgian Pro League for Club Brugge last season. He produced 17 goals and 23 assists in 36 games. In the 2024-25 campaign he scored 16 goals and nine assists, and may prove to be instrumental in Arsenal’s quest for a league and Champions League double this season.

The Gunners have also added the midfield quality of Brazilian Bruno Guimarães. The 28-year-old moved to London from Newcastle United, where he spent four years.

“Christos has shown largely what he’s capable of doing. He needs to bring that to the Premier League. He’s given every sign that he’s going to do it because he’s so consistent, so composed in and around the box,” said Arteta. “And Bruno… You can sense this very well, his presence on the pitch is going to be really important.”

Maresca’s Man City

The Gunners will face challenges from the likes of City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. Although City is entering a new era following the departure of Guardiola, who left the club after 10 successful years, they will come into the season as the favourites to closely challenge Arsenal.

Former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, also a graduate of the Guardiola school of coaching (alongside Arteta), has been tasked with taking the baton from his mentor. Of course, only an unrealistic person would expect Maresca to emulate Guardiola’s achievements, which include six Premier League titles, a number of domestic trophies and the club’s maiden Champions League title.

But he is under pressure to ensure that the blue side of Manchester does not plummet so much post-Guardiola that it reaches the depths that were its reality before its Emirati owners took over. Before the Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan-led takeover in 2008, City was a mid-table club at best.

This season, Maresca will either emulate Arne Slot, who produced instant continuity after the Jürgen Klopp era at Liverpool, or he will find himself struggling like Unai Emery (Arsenal) and David Moyes (Manchester United). Both battled to fill the voids left by Wenger and Ferguson.

“I consider Pep the best coach in the world in the last 20 years,” said Maresca. “It’s a challenge, it’s nice, a privilege [to succeed him]. Also, the history of managers with many years in the same club tells us that after you replace them, you struggle a little.”

New faces

Maresca will be alongside Liverpool’s new boss, Andoni Iraola, and Chelsea’s Xabi Alonso in feeling the pressure to hit the ground running. Both the Blues and the Reds had underwhelming campaigns in 2025-26. Chelsea finished a lowly 10th place, which means they will not have any continental commitments this season. Alonso will need to change this, at least, to bolster his odds of remaining at the helm.

As for Iraola, Alonso’s fellow Spaniard, he must do better than Slot. The Dutchman was sacked after two campaigns despite qualifying Liverpool for the Champions League last season. The Reds finished fifth. That is the foundation on which Iraola must build.

Former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick laid his own foundation when he took over from Ruben Amorim in January and guided the Red Devils to a third place finish last season. The minimum expectation from demanding fans will be a repetition of this. But the club is also dreaming of its first league title since 2013.

Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City are the newcomers in the 2026-27 season. They will be favourites to return to the second tier. Coventry are managed by Premier League great Frank Lampard and won the Championship last season. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.