Gabriel Magalhaes celebrates scoring a goal. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Imagine you are a Gunner, a loyal fan of the London-based club, and you hear the last time Arsenal really achieved something memorable was the invincible season of 2003-04, under the tutelage of Arsène Wenger.
After that, all you get are memes and mockeries of Arsenal’s inability to break through.
Meanwhile, you have to watch even unstable Manchester United or subpar Tottenham winning trophies, saying enough about your frustration.
But it seems like Arsenal are finally having their chance to prove this 2025-26 season.
Despite another subpar beginning, including a 1-0 away loss to Liverpool, the season has surprisingly gone increasingly Arsenal’s favour.
Liverpool’s self-destructed defeats, Manchester City’s subpar forms, Chelsea’s own quagmire, and even the struggles of Manchester United and Aston Villa, all provided an unthinkable large space that relieve Arsenal’s pressure and contribute to their dominant run at the moment.
But can this season be truly theirs after multiple past miseries?
Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, who himself was a former disciple of Pep Guardiola, are a rare exception of being consistent underperformers, and many have attributed to Arteta’s deeply inconsistent tactics and the lack of proper cohesion among the Gunners in important fixtures.
Excluding the 2019 FA Cup that Arteta surprisingly won given his lack of experience as a manager, the rest proved to be identical to the mockeries given to Gunners.
This was witnessed in a denting 3-0 home loss to Brighton at the 2022-23 season, or their 1-0 away loss to Newcastle at the 2023-24 season – in both cases, Arsenal failed to sustain their momentum of chasing the title, mainly to the hands of Manchester City and Liverpool because they frequently collapsed in matches that were supposed to be easy pieces of works on their hands.
In fact, Arteta has frequently struggled to find how to address this shortcoming, and fan angers against him have mounted for years due to this inability to address the shortcomings.
Indeed, the 2025-26 season has become Arteta’s “defining moment”, for if he fails again, he shall be dismissed immediately after the end of the season to appease angry Arsenal fans of their team’s underachievement.
But Arteta’s Arsenal of this season has been impressive so far. Their resurgence from the away loss to Liverpool to now maintaining such a dominant position on top of the table can be traced from Arteta’s persistent trust on several players he had groomed over in years earlier.
Bukayo Saka is now the club’s most dangerous and persistent scorer, David Raya establishes himself as a reliable No.1 custodian, and Leandro Trossard becoming one of the most versatile midfielder in the Premier League and Belgian national team, all suggests Arteta has finally found the glue to connect them together.
More impressively, Arsenal are one of the deadliest clubs in Europe in term of weaponising set-piece opportunities, with nearly 20 goals of the Gunners coming under such approach.
The maximising use of set-piece to devastating effects have proven to be useful for the club.
Moreover, Arsenal are also dominating the Champions League this season. They have won all six games played so far, including a famous 3-1 win over Bayern Munich, currently coached by Vincent Kompany, who formerly served as captain of Manchester City and also a former disciple to Guardiola.
This effectively sealed Arsenal’s progression with two games to spare, allowing the club’s resources to be allocated for domestic frontier as the Gunners are capitalising from their opponents’ fallouts in performances to cement their first place.
Not just that, Arsenal are also still in contention for the FA Cup and the Football League (Carabao) Cup titles as well, and they are close to achieve a historic domestic quadruple as well.
With all of these conditions combined, perhaps, Arsenal are closer to end their long hurt, and Arteta may have his chance to retain his job as coach of the Gunners.
But he will have to prove that past mistakes must not be repeated again.
The fact that Arsenal frequently collapsed in the decisive fixtures under Arteta clearly carry bitter memories that many Gunners supporters definitely dislike to think about, and this season can be the chance to correct everything wrong in the past for him, if Arteta ever wishes to triumph again.