Arsenal is the reigning Premier League champion and also the runner-up of the Champions League. In predictions before the 2026-27 season, Opta Analyst ranked Arsenal at number 1 for the championship.
To have the force and powerful position as today, Arsenal has gone through 7 years of reviving everything almost from scratch under the hands of Mikel Arteta. The most crisis period for the "Gunners" was when Unai Emery was sacked in November 2019. After that, Freddie Ljungberg became interim and it was Mikel Arteta's turn to replace him with an official contract.
In the 2019-20 season, Arsenal experienced an unprecedented series of poor matches in Premier League history lasting from October 17 - December 19, 2019 (local time). They lost 7 out of 10 consecutive matches in the EPL, drew 2 and only won 1, which was a 1-0 victory over Man United at Old Trafford. At that time, the pressure on Mikel Arteta was very high because he had never had the experience of officially leading any club. Before taking the hot seat at Emirates, the young Spanish captain only had years as an assistant to Pep Guardiola, who was then successful with Man City.
At the end of that season, Arsenal finished in 8th place. That was their worst position in the Premier League in more than 30 years, from 1994 - 2025. The slogans "Arteta Out" appeared everywhere in the early stages of Mikel Arteta in charge of the team, just like the final stage of "Professor" Arsene Wenger with The Gunners.
In that season, Arsenal's force was not too bad, but still far from the level of the current generation of players. Especially in defense, at that time Arsenal possessed many players who were only of average or weak level such as Sokratis, Mustafi, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Pablo Marí, Sead Kolasinac, Cédric Soares,... Currently, The Gunners have in hand the world's top central defender pair Gabriel - Saliba, the remaining factors are also of very high level such as Calafiori, Ben White, Timber,...
Especially in midfield, in the generation of players in the 2019-20 season, only Mesut Ozil is qualified at the world's top level. Currently, Arsenal can list a series of top-level players such as Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice, Bruno Guimarares,...
In those years, Arsenal, from a team specializing in being "gutted" by other clubs, has now become an irresistible destination for big stars. They have become champions from a team that finished second for 3 consecutive seasons. From a team that was often bullied in the Champions League, now the "Gunners" can defeat the strongest teams such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich,...
All those stories of Arsenal in the 2019-20 season are very similar to the current Man United. Carrick before becoming official was also not a high-level coach when he only led Middlesbrough in the Championship. The two come from midfielders, so they have quite similar initial views on building a team. However, Arteta is rated slightly higher than Carrick because he has worked with Pep Guardiola for many years and is imbued with the ideology of this legendary coach.
