Ridiculed, Questioned, Vindicated: Mikel Arteta’s Journey to the Premier League Title

To say Arsenal have come a long way in the six and a half years since Mikel Arteta was appointed as manager is about as gross an understatement as they come.

When he arrived at the Emirates Stadium on 22 December 2019, Arsenal were in 11th place in the Premier League table, had won just five of their 18 league games under Unai Emery that season, and were playing their third consecutive campaign in the Europa League — without a trophy beyond the FA Cup or Community Shield in 15 years. The stadium was an unhappy place. Granit Xhaka had been booed off the pitch by his own supporters just weeks earlier. The disconnect between club and fanbase was as wide as it had ever been.

Six and a half years later, Arsenal are Premier League champions, the best-ranked team in the world for much of 2026, and preparing for a Champions League final. The same Arteta who was routinely mocked, second-guessed, and told to abandon his principles has been vindicated irrevocably.

The Ridicule Years: Fair Enough, But Not the Full Story

Arteta has always been a lightning rod for ridicule — some of it fair, some of it wildly disproportionate. The problem was that in his early years, when results were poor, the material was plentiful.

There was the sketch, captured on Amazon’s All or Nothing documentary, of a heart and a brain holding hands. There was the decision to prepare his players for a trip to Anfield by blasting out You’ll Never Walk Alone at full volume in training. There was the post-match press conference after Arsenal put in 33 crosses in a December 2020 defeat to Wolves, when Arteta said: “I’m telling you that if we do that more consistently, we’re going to score more goals. If we put the bodies we had in certain moments in the box, it’s maths, pure maths and it will happen.” Arsenal then lost three of their next four games, including a 1-0 home defeat to Burnley.

And above all else — most regularly resurfaced by his detractors throughout his tenure — was his persistent insistence to “trust the process” when results were disappointing.

He was mocked for it relentlessly. He is vindicated for it permanently.

How Far Arsenal Had Fallen Before He Arrived

The scale of what Arteta inherited is important context. According to the Opta Power Rankings, which assess teams worldwide on a consistent scale, Arsenal dropped to 27th in the world on 30 December 2019 — their lowest position since 2010, just a week after Arteta had taken over.

Arsenal had spent the vast majority of the previous decade in the world’s top 20. When Arteta arrived, they were well outside it and sinking.

The Non-Linear Rise: Trust Tested, Trust Rewarded

The improvement was neither immediate nor straightforward. Arteta’s first full season brought a morale-boosting FA Cup victory — a first trophy in six years — but an eighth-place Premier League finish. His second produced another eighth place. Two consecutive eighth-place finishes: the club’s lowest back-to-back league positions since 1994-95.

His third season saw progress, but Arsenal still missed out on Champions League football — painfully, on the final day, to Spurs — finishing fifth. At that stage, the “trust the process” messaging felt increasingly strained to those on the outside.

The club deserved credit for their patience. Because what happened next validated every decision.

In 2022-23, Arsenal made a remarkable, largely unforeseen run for the Premier League title. They spent 248 days at the top of the table — a record for a side that ultimately did not win the championship. They were still top as late as 2 May, before City’s relentless finishing straight wore them down.

It would have been understandable — even expected — for that near-miss to leave lasting psychological damage. It did not. Arteta saw the opportunity and doubled down. The following summer brought the transformative signing of Declan Rice, who has since developed into a Ballon d’Or contender and one of the best midfielders in the world.

Three consecutive runners-up finishes followed from 2022-23 to 2024-25 — only the second time any team has been Premier League runners-up for three successive seasons, after Arsenal themselves between 1999-2000 and 2001-02. “Second again,” became the chant from opposition supporters. Again, Arteta persisted. The club did too.

The Final Pieces: Building a Title-Winning Squad

The summers of 2024 and 2025 saw Arteta address what he identified as fundamental weaknesses. The squad lacked the depth required to sustain a title challenge across a gruelling season. Signings including Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapié, and Noni Madueke transformed the quality of the club’s backup options.

The impact was measurable. Arsenal’s substitutes provided more goals and assists than those of any other side in the Premier League this season — 22 contributions from the bench. That depth was the difference between three second-place finishes and a title.

On the pitch, Arteta had constructed the best defensive unit the Premier League had seen in years. Comparisons with José Mourinho’s Chelsea — widely considered the gold standard of Premier League defensive organisation — became commonplace.

The set-piece record is particularly striking. Arsenal broke the Premier League record for goals scored from corners in a single season — 18 — demonstrating the level of tactical preparation and attention to detail that Arteta has applied to every aspect of the game.

And perhaps the number that pleases him most of all: Arsenal have outrun their opponents in 35 of their 37 league games this season. That is not a coincidence of talent. That is the direct product of a squad that has completely bought into what their manager demands.

The Attention to Detail That Others Laughed At

Arteta’s meticulous, controlling approach has been criticised throughout his tenure as overbearing or unnecessarily obsessive. In retrospect, it looks like genius.

He oversaw changes to the away dressing room at the Emirates to make it less hospitable for visiting teams. He worked closely with fan groups to improve the stadium atmosphere — something that may seem peripheral until you recognise how important the Emirates as a fortress has been to Arsenal’s title challenge. He has attended to every marginal gain, every small detail, every element of culture and environment that collectively creates a winning team.

None of it happened quickly. None of it was linear. And none of it was conducted to the accompaniment of widespread confidence that it would work.

The World’s Best: From 27th to Number One

The final confirmation of how far Arsenal have come sits in the Opta Power Rankings. For most of 2026, Arsenal have sat at the top of the global rankings — the best team in the world — for the first time since the system was created in 2010. Only Bayern Munich, peaking at the height of their Champions League campaign, have recently nudged them off the summit.

It means Arsenal enter the Champions League final as the higher-ranked team than European champions Paris Saint-Germain. The underdogs — according to the model — are not Arteta’s side.

That is a set of circumstances that would have seemed entirely fantastical even three years ago.

The journey from 27th in the world, 11th in the Premier League, three Europa League campaigns in a row — to Premier League champions, top of the Opta Power Rankings, Champions League finalists — is one of the most remarkable managerial achievements in the history of English football.

Arteta did not do it alone. He had significant financial backing, institutional support, and a group of exceptional players. But he identified the players, developed the culture, built the system, absorbed the ridicule, outlasted the doubters, and ultimately delivered the title that had eluded Arsenal for 22 years.

The process, as it turned out, was worth trusting.

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