NOBODY can deny that Arsenal were the best team in the Premier League in 2025-26 and after three successive runners-up spots, success was probably overdue. Since the Gunners were proclaimed champions, there has been talk of a dynasty being triggered by the club’s first title since 2004. This type of bold statement, which invariably follows a major triumph, is more wishful thinking than based on careful analysis, and in almost every single case, it is simply unachievable.
For a dynasty to become reality, the baton has to continuously pass down the line; Mikel Arteta certainly wasn’t the recipient of a baton but when his time to go comes, will he be able to pass one on to his successor and make the dynasty good and true? Arsenal’s team was not one that had been built from homegrown products, it was expensively constructed through hefty financial outlay. A dynasty is, supposedly, more organic, in other words, a conveyor belt of talent that had been nurtured in-house. Today, continued success has more to do with intelligent expenditure than anything else.
When a great manager leaves a club that has, essentially, been created by his methods over a long period, more often than not, the change is far from seamless. It has been seen at many clubs over the years: Arsenal and Manchester United both handled succession badly when Arsene Wenger and Matt Busby finally departed and others like Ipswich Town under Bobby Robson, Leeds United under Don Revie and Watford under Graham Taylor were never the same clubs when their patriarch was no longer in charge. The only true and successful dynasty in English football was arguably at Liverpool when Shankly passed to Paisley to Fagan to Dalglish. It really ended after that, but it had endured from 1959 to 1991.
Winning the league title two years in a row is a major achievement and the records of exceptional managers like Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola cannot be used as benchmarks. The methods of great managers do have a shelf life and there are no guarantees of longevity. Arsenal will go into 2026-27 as the favourites and the team everyone wants to beat. But they will also need to strengthen their squad. They are competing with a group of clubs who all have the same ambition. This current Arsenal team did not walk away with the title, they finished seven points clear of second place and it would not take much to close that gap.
For Arsenal, or any club to that matter, to create a dynasty, success has to be self-perpetuating. In the Premier League era, Arsenal have – for manifold reasons – won far fewer trophies than Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United and one fewer than Liverpool. The cynics would say the first two clubs in that list have benefited from vast sums of money invested, but the Arsenal team of 2025-26 cost around half a billion pounds.
Manchester City’s run of success since 2011 has been built around league titles – 40% of their 20 top prizes have been league titles, while United’s Premier era haul of 27 comprises 48% Premier wins. Arsenal’s 13 trophies include nine FA Cups and one League Cup, in other words, 77% are not from being crowned champions. For the north London club to cultivate the dynasty they may crave, they have to change the habits of their Premier League lifetime. They may have already started that process.
They can certainly shrug aside the neurosis of not being able to win the big prize, which may create a more relaxed Arsenal, and with Guardiola gone, their nemesis can no longer scupper their plans. A dynasty is nigh on impossible for any club to achieve, largely because the modern game is built around short-term thinking and hurried and rash decision-making. Arsenal are not Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham in terms of their constant sub-optimal choice of managers, but they all operate in that same market and are under the same pressures.
Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a broad range of subjects. [View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen](https://gameofthepeople.com/author/georgefjord/)