An Arsenal fan’s love letter to Mikel Arteta’s Premier League-winning heroes
This will be a cross between a love letter and incoherent emotions smashed into a keyboard – because Arsenal Football Club have done it.
They have bloody done it.
After 22 years of waiting and enduring ridicule, banter, bottlejobs and second-place finishes, Arsenal are champions of England again.
Fourteen league titles. The most iconic number in the club’s history.
Despite building something quite special over the last four seasons, Mikel Arteta had nothing tangible to show for the ‘process’ – only gut-wrenching second-place finishes and hundreds of millions spent on a bunch of nearly men.
This group of players are no longer nearly men. They are no longer bottlers. No more ‘second again, ole, ole, ole’. They are champions. Nobody can take that away from them.
There has been an outpouring of emotion from the players and supporters, none of which is overblown.
It’s 22 years of emotion pouring out at once, and the scenes outside the Emirates Stadium and across North London proved just how much this achievement means – and just how much everyone associated with Arsenal has been longing for it.
The scenes did not only show what it meant, but also the gargantuan size and loyalty of the Arsenal fanbase.
Rivals might convince themselves otherwise, but this beats another soulless Manchester City title. If you don’t appreciate what you witnessed outside the Emirates on Tuesday night and into the early hours of Wednesday morning, you are, simply put, miserable.
While this is really all about Arsenal, it’s difficult to bask in the glory without thinking of what everyone else has said about them over the years, and the pain other clubs have inflicted.
This win goes out to the 8-2 at Old Trafford, Pep Guardiola, several embarrassments at Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, Stoke City Football Club, Unai Emery, the ‘Always the Bridesmaid’ banner at Anfield, the bottle guy at Stamford Bridge, and every single person who took the p*ss out of the miserable Arsenal fan at school on a Monday morning.
It should now be the first of many for this amazing football club. If you thought they were unbearable before, you haven’t seen anything yet.
North London forever. Whatever the weather.
By Jason Soutar
READ NEXT: Five potential signings for Arsenal to retain their Premier League title: Alvarez, Gordon…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every year that Arsenal have won the league title?