The 8 managers who have won a major trophy in England since Mikel Arteta last did
Arsenal’s trophy drought will continue into a sixth season after their Champions League semi-final elimination, having been beaten home and away by PSG.
Mikel Arteta has done a brilliant job to turn Arsenal into a serious challenger, but he hasn’t quite got them over the line in the Premier League title race or into any finals.
He did lead the Gunners to FA Cup glory a few months after being appointed back in 2020, but while overseeing the grand rebuild he’s failed to deliver any major trophies in any of his five full seasons at the helm.
Here are the eight Premier League managers who have won a major trophy since Arteta last did back in 2020.
Arne Slot
“Yeah, big time,” Arteta responded when asked if watching Liverpool beat them to the Premier League title was a bitter pill to swallow.
“It was in my tummy [that it hurt], yeah. I understand that it’s a team that’s being more consistent, and it has a lot of ingredients that you need to win it, but it’s very painful, yeah.”
The Arsenal manager had remained bullish on Arsenal’s chances throughout the 2024-25 campaign, in spite of their failure to gain ground by putting a decent winning run together.
Slot has become only the fifth manager in Premier League history to win the title in his debut season, and in all honesty, he made it look easy. Liverpool’s 20th title ended up a procession, sealed with four games to spare.
“I take the opportunity as well to congratulate Liverpool and what they’ve done, the management they’ve done, how consistent they’ve been,” a magnanimous Arteta added.
“I think they fully deserve to win. They were the better team, they had so many attributes, they had a consistent squad available. And we’re going to try again. But up to that moment next season, now we’re going to have to finish the season very strong.”
Arteta’s Gunners will give the newly-crowned champions a guard of honour at Anfield on Sunday, when they’ll be hoping to serve up a reminder that they’re a serious match for Liverpool.
Eddie Howe
It had been 56 years since Newcastle’s last piece of silverware. Seventy since their last domestic one. Now that’s a trophy drought.
There have been some beloved managers on Tyneside in that time, from Kevin Keegan to Sir Bobby Robson to Rafael Benitez. But it was Howe who ended all their many decades of waiting, and in quite brilliant fashion too.
Howe masterminded victories over Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Arsenal – home and away in the semis – and Slot’s formidable Liverpool en route to lifting the League Cup at Wembley. That’s four of the current top six. Chapaeu.
Pep Guardiola
Where do we start with Guardiola?
Since the summer of 2020, Pep has led Manchester City to four successive Premier League titles, the first coach in English football history to achieve that feat. The treble in 2022-23 – only the second man after Sir Alex Ferguson to manage that with an English club.
There’s also the 2021 League Cup, another trophy that capped off four in a row.
That’s what Arteta’s had to deal with. But to be the best, you need to beat the best.
Erik ten Hag
The Dutch coach went all Rafa Benitez, pointing to the ‘facts’ whilst defending his record in his final, beleaguered weeks in the Old Trafford dugout.
“Listen, we won, the last two years, behind Manchester City, the most trophies in English football, so we performed already the last two seasons,” Ten Hag told reporters back in September.
“And listen to me, that is the reality, they are the facts.
“There is only one thing in football, that’s about at the end of the season if you win prizes, trophies, or not. And I repeat myself, after City, we won the most trophies in English football.
“I don’t care if I get the credit or I don’t get the credit. What it’s about is I had to build this club. We brought young players in, we progressed young players, we won trophies. So what can I do more?”
A few weeks later, he was out of the door after Manchester United’s dismal league form failed to pick up.
Ten Hag’s United were in a different stratosphere to Arteta’s Gunners when it came to their performances and overall form. And yet they won both domestic cups while Arsenal went empty-handed. That must sting.
We might see the same again this season, with the 15th-placed Red Devils one step away from the Europa League trophy. Could be worse, could be Spurs. No, really, it actually could be Spurs.
Jurgen Klopp
Just like Arteta, Klopp knows a thing or two about stomaching heartbreak on the long road to silverware.
The German lost League Cup, Europa League and Champions League finals – and a Premier League title with 97 points(!) – before he got his hands on a trophy.
Arteta lifted a shiny pot with Arsenal far quicker than Klopp did on Merseyside, but the German’s ‘project’ yielded silverware much sooner than this Arteta team. Of this current squad, only Kieran Tierney and Bukayo Saka won the FA Cup back in 2020, and the latter was an unused substitute at Wembley.
After getting Liverpool to the Champions League final in his second full season in charge, Klopp delivered the trophy in his third. And then the Premier League in his fourth.
He’s since completed the set since Arteta’s last trophy, having added two League Cups (2021-22 and 2023-24) and the FA Cup (2021-22) to his legacy in English football.
David Moyes
The man under whom Arteta made the most appearances of his playing career, Moyes won the first major honour of his lengthy managerial career at the age of 60.
“The fans as well, seeing them after the game I was a bit lost for words. It’s the best feeling of my life, never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d win a European trophy,” Moyes said after leading West Ham to the UEFA Conference League in 2020.
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the veteran milking the trophy celebrations for all they were worth.
Still the only trophy of Declan Rice’s career to date, too. Ouch.
READ: The last time every Premier League club won a major trophy
Thomas Tuchel
The current England manager’s time at Stamford Bridge was short and sweet.
Tuchel swiftly turned Chelsea’s fortunes around after replacing club icon Frank Lampard in the dugout, instantly implementing a three-at-the-back formation that Europe’s elite – Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Manchester City – had no answer to.
His one full season in charge of the Blues wasn’t quite as impressive, as they finished a distant third, but he still delivered the Club World Cup (a trophy Chelsea failed to win last time around, back in 2012).
Chelsea will be jetting off to this summer’s expanded Club World Cup thanks to that victory four years ago – albeit with barely any players remaining from that squad. A reminder that football moves fast.
Brendan Rodgers
Tuchel was denied two trophies in his first few months in English football.
Shortly before their iconic victory over Manchester City, Chelsea were defeated via the same narrow 1-0 scoreline to Leicester City.
Youri Tielemans’ long-range strike was the difference (as well as the tightest of offside VAR calls) at Wembley that day, delivering the first and only piece of silverware that Rodgers has lifted outside of his two trophy-laden stints at Celtic.
The Foxes are the only non-‘big six’ club to have won the FA Cup in the past 12 years, since Wigan shocked Man City. But let’s see if we’ll be adding Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner to this list next weekend.
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