When Arsenal won the previous championship in 2004, many players in their current squad had not yet been born such as Myle Lewis-Skelly, Christian Mosquera or Max Dowman. At that time, Mikel Arteta was only 22 years old, still in the stage of asserting himself as a player, having played in France and Scotland.
Saying that to see how long the time between the Gunners' two most recent Premier League titles is. From the 2004 champion generation to the 2022 champion generation, Arsenal has gone through many generations of players but still could not succeed.
Before the "Gunners" entered the championship race with Man City and Liverpool, in all previous seasons, almost no year were considered the number 1 candidates for the championship. In the 2015-2016 season, when a series of big teams were no longer themselves, Arsenal also could not beat the phenomenon Leicester. They were even 10 points behind The Foxes after the season ended.
This season, although they have won the championship, looking back at the previous journey, there were countless times when it seemed that the Premier League title was once again out of reach for Mikel Arteta's team. Not far away, after the FIFA Days in March closed, Arsenal lost miserably in the domestic arena. They lost in the League Cup final to Man City, and were eliminated from the FA Cup quarter-finals by Southampton. Not only that, the defeats against Bournemouth and Man City themselves once made the Premier League goal more shaken than ever.
There are many turning points for Arsenal this season and the moments will be recalled very long after. In a 4-game losing streak in the domestic arena last month, Arsenal once succumbed to Man City in the Premier League, directly giving the opponent an advantage in the championship race.
The final whistle sounded at the Etihad stadium, when Arsenal players were clearly showing disappointment, Declan Rice repeated the saying: "It's not done" many times (temporary translation: "it's still not done"). In previous seasons, when Man City rose in the final stage of the season, they were often the champions. Although Arsenal and Liverpool once were unbeaten in many matches in the sprint stage, they still could not catch up with Man City. Therefore, the defeat at the Etihad last month was a very bad omen for Arsenal when they were leading the Premier League for many weeks before that.
Rice's expression and attitude at that time seemed to add strength to his teammates, helping them to be more confident in the remaining stage. In the end, Arsenal stood firm while Man City stumbled against Everton and Bournemouth.
In the match of round 36, the away match against West Ham is predicted to be extremely difficult. Indeed, Arsenal has lived in fear twice at the Olympic stadium against an opponent who is forced to win to save relegation hopes.
When Mateus Fernandes faced David Raya at close range, the entire Olympic stadium stand seemed to be silent. If Fernandes had scored the equalizer at that moment, Arsenal would have stumbled and again given Man City the right to decide the championship title. In some miraculous way, Raya made an excellent save, saving Arsenal from a clear goal.
In the final minutes when Callum Wilson put the ball into the net, many "Gunners" fans covered their faces in disappointment. The ghost of second place in 3 previous seasons reappeared because time was very short, it was very difficult for Arsenal to rise again. However, VAR intervened and determined that David Raya was fouled in an aerial duel.
The moment Mr. Chris Kavanagh checked the slow-motion screen and read the message to the entire Olympic stadium, Arsenal fans seemed to be revived because they knew that if that goal was disallowed, the victory would belong to the "Gunners" and the right to self-determination would be in their hands.
Since 2004, Arsenal has had hundreds of players coming and going. As of the match against Burnley just past, there have been exactly 200 players debuted for Arsenal since the championship 22 years ago. Over the past 22 years, Arsenal has gone through 4 coaching terms, including 1 case of temporary position. After the Premier League title in 2004, Arsenal won the FA Cup 5 more times but they also finished 2nd in the Premier League 5 times.
22 years ago, Arsenal lifted the trophy at their old home, Highbury. The Emirates Stadium was inaugurated in 2007, but it was not until 19 years later that they had the opportunity to celebrate the Premier League title at this new home.
It took nearly 2 decades for Arsenal to be crowned at the Emirates, but everyone hopes that right from this season, another successful era like the early stages with legend Arsene Wenger.
