Mfonobong Inyang: What Arsenal Winning The League Means As A Superfan

Arsenal FC players celebrating winning the 2025/26 Premier League in the locker room. Photo credit: Arsenal/X

If you’re not a football aficionado, you might probably wonder what all the fuss is about. Arsenal Football Club winning the English Premier League ordinarily shouldn’t be a big deal, given the rich history of the club, until you really understand the backstory. In my family, there are a few things that we have a consensus on. Aside from faith, another is supporting The Arsenal. It’s quite the irony when someone like me finds it hard to put into words the effect Arsenal’s style of football had on us as children. Our very own papilo, Nwankwo Kanu, was a big pull for the Nigerian and wider African audiences at the time. Before tiki taka became a thing, Arsène Wenger had shaped the club into a team that played the most attractive football. I was there as a little boy when The Invincibles won the 2003/2004 Premier League season, conquering the league without losing a single match. I remember how the fans christened Thierry Henry as “Igwe”. It doesn’t matter that we supported a London club while residing in Lagos; Arsenal was our club. Ever since then, it’s been more than two decades of trying to recapture that magic in a bottle.

Banter FC

Speaking of bottles, it was becoming an unwanted tag that the club was associated with: a bottle job, the ‘almost’ guys, always the bridesmaid but never the bride. One of the most heartbreaking matches I watched as a fan was the final of the UEFA Champions League twenty years ago. Despite being a man down, we nearly crossed the line against Barcelona. There have been several near misses in competing for major honours in recent years, but being runners-up for three consecutive seasons easily tops the list of frustrating times. FA Cups are great, but nothing compares to the league. It has been a long and arduous journey. Quite frankly, embarrassing at many points. Watching other teams pick up trophies almost turned me into bad belle, but I thank God because say e no too deep like that.

You know Arsenal is a big club when other supporters who usually don’t see eye to eye on football topics find common ground in taking swipes at us. It was even said that men who support Arsenal are simps because they stay loyal to their partners even when the relationship isn’t mutually beneficial. Trust me, this feels like we just got a huge monkey off our backs. You needed really good cardio to watch Arsenal games because the heartbreaks were on steroids. It’s the hope that kills you; the trauma of starting a season with great energy only for it to end in tears was crazy work. At some point, it looked like GTA 6 would be released before Arsenal ended the trophy drought. Make no mistake, winning the league isn’t just the completion of our redemption arc; this is bragging rights!

Trusting The Process

At some point, the handwriting was on the wall. The club needed to move into its post-Wenger era. However, filling the shoes of le professeur was no small feat. This wasn’t just another job opening; there was a legacy to preserve. The leadership of the club tried what many considered the best available option at the time, but the disconnect was just too obvious. Enter Mikel Arteta. Yes, he was a former player at the club under Wenger and was an assistant to one of football’s greatest coaches, but he had no managerial experience of his own. Winning the FA Cup only helped him buy some time, but the crown jewel was always bringing the Premier League trophy home to the Emirates. I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t the biggest Arteta fan out there. I just couldn’t see the vision; it also didn’t help that we didn’t qualify for the Champions League in those first two seasons. Big shout out to the Kroenkes, even when some sections of the gooners wanted a change, they stuck to their guns and just let Mikel cook. They stood ten toes and accepted the mission.

It wasn’t until my gaffer started to clean house by getting rid of some characters in the team that I began to clock it. When he made Raya the first-choice goalie, I was up in arms, then he proved me wrong again. Man was moving like prime Thomas Shelby, who famously says, “I have made arrangements with men I trust.” He wasn’t just doing shrewd business in the transfer market, but he wanted to change the culture at the club. I could smell what the club was cooking when we brought in players like Big Decs for a hundred million quid, then I knew we were serious about this title thing. He built this team brick by brick and made us believe again. All I could do from that point on was support the team and let it all work out (and it did!) The future is bright because we’ve got super Mik Arteta!

Let Me Talk To The Opps For A Sec

The north remembers how you lots were moving funny, rival fans trolling us on the internet and calling us choke artists. Even pundits who had failed at coaching were talking smack about Arsenal every week on television. Laughed at us when we were losing, but when we started getting our ducks in a row, we were labelled “Set Piece FC”. Since 2004, when we climbed the ladder, you envied us like Nevada, but it never mattered. We’re used to this, numb to that – as fans, we just knew we gotta adapt. To the rest of you, the non-believers: I shouldn’t even be shocked to see you not staying the course because you always made your career off of switching teams up. The apologies have to be as loud as the disrespect, that’s all I’m saying. Winning is problematic; people like you more when you’re working towards something, not when you have it. Now the banter will no longer hit like before; it will be harder to hide behind ‘analysis’ to score brownie points. You know what’s coming, but you’re not ready for it: this isn’t just a W but the beginning of dominance. Be humble, eh. Your faves know they are gonna be put in a spliff from next season. How do you feel now when we’ve got the champagne on ice?

We Used To Pray For Times Like This

Over the last few weeks, I had bragged about the things I would do when Arsenal eventually won the league, but when it actually happened, I was too overwhelmed to do any of those things. I didn’t know how to act. I even had some lines written down for the fans’ party of the final day of the season, including one for my starboy, Bukayo: “E ba mi toju Oluwa Saka, omo iya mi o!” I am particularly happy that a new generation of young gooners will get to see this version of Arsenal succeed and not just the endless references to a storied past. This is not Nostalgia FC, this is Arsenal freaking FC. From hoping for a fourth-place finish every season to playing in the Champions League final, we have really come a long way. The Unforgettables? I dare say, when Arsenal wins Europe’s most prestigious club competition, I want a statue of Arteta outside the Emirates in short order, and I’m not even joking. Shout out to the real fans who knew what we had in the basement and for the patience it took to turn these Ls into lessons. Come on, you Gunners! Get in!

North London forever,
Whatever the weather.
These streets are our own,
And my heart will leave you never.
My blood will forever,
Run through the stone!