Odinaka Ugwuozor

The Premier League trophy and medals were presented to the Arsenal players by Emmanuel, a participant from North London United, a football organization for adults and children with Down syndrome. The club and the Premier League chose to have him hand out the medals instead of a corporate executive.

Even the Catholic Church was red today, being Pentecost Sunday and Arsenal Coronation Sunday.😊

Just came across @ayoofalltrades on IG. @asemota you’d love this. He has these videos of artisan and trade culture from common people in Nigeria. instagram.com/reel/DYuJ0J9tg… I really enjoyed this one and have missed these send forth ceremonies. Please you people should follow him.

@NzubeEzudo This message just reinforced a lot for me. Thanks for sharing.

One thing about Arsenal is this “they understand branding and comms” and they don't half-ass it. The speed of all this is orchestrated in advance not just vibed. Lesson for founders, Build a world for your product and brand, own your narrative and push that advantage. x.com/LeoTrossardHQ/…

Seeing this just makes me understand why this man was always going to succeed.

Man, this club has epic talent of editing videos. This should make you teary 🥹

Energy! 🙌😅🤣💪🔴⚪

@Mr_Gerrie01 👌

Looking at 'This' thing Mikel Arteta just did from life's perspective. It doesn't matter what people think of you. As a matter of fact the same people you call friends will be the loudest in writing you off. So long as they are winning while you keep failing, they will be okay with it. The moment they start seeing a glimmer of hope in you, they will do everything they can to quench it. As Arteta will always tell his players, "Block out the noise". Focus on what you have set out to acheive. You Know where you are coming from. You know your destination. That should be your drive, your motivation. Six years of grinding. Six years of sweat, tears and blood. Four years of going against a behemoth with an unlimited resources. You are already losing. Your only motivation is you and your determination to be successful. You will be lucky if you have a few people who actually believe in you. Sometimes you'd have to do it alone. Sometimes you'd even doubt yourself. Be steadfast. Be courageous. It's okay to keep trying and failing. The danger is not trying at all. Life is not scripted. Everyone writes their own story. You alone will write yours. Arteta believed even when a section of the fans turned on him. Do you know the mental strength he had to actually keep fighting? Mentality Monster. People will say, its just football. No its not. That is life. You are up against people with unlimited resources and you have to beat them to survive. It's ride or die. Success is a must. Keep pushing the limit, keep fighting, focus, focus, block out the noise and one day, one beautiful day, all your efforts, sweat and blood will pay off.

@maydoosah @Elkrosmediahub Hehe

Took Mikel Arteta 7years and £1.14billion spent to match what Antonio Conte and Arne Slot achieved in their first season in the EPL, and they didn’t need PGMOL to do it. Matter of fact, took Claudio Ranieri exactly 9months and total of £27m spent to win the EPL at Leicester.

“Kenneth Okonkwo Was Busy Raining Curses On Peter Obi. I Had Private Discussions With Him And Warned Him Not To Do What He Is Currently Doing, Because He Would Regret It, But He Said He Would Never Work With Peter Obi Again Over His Dead Body. Well, Peter Obi Is a Different Kind Of Politician. I Have Worked With Him For Years, And He Will Never Give You Money To Vote For Him. Peter Obi Has Said He Will Never Engage In Transactional Politics Or Use Money To Buy Positions To Serve The People That’s Why They’re Against Him.” ~ Senator Victor Umeh On Kenneth Okonkwo

Eberechi Eze last month: “I’m not too interested in what people think & how they feel about us winning. WHEN we do win, it will be down to everyone else to deal with that.” 🔮🏆

2019/20: 8th 2020/21: 8th 2021/22: 5th 2022/23: 2nd 2023/24: 2nd 2024/25: 2nd 2025/26: 1st That is not luck. That is not “one good season”. That is one of the clearest rebuild curves modern football has seen. When Mikel Arteta arrived at Arsenal in 2019, Arsenal were emotionally broken as a football club. The squad had talent, but no structure, no authority, no collective mentality. The dressing room had too many disconnected personalities, the standards had dropped, fans had lost belief, and the team had become soft mentally and physically. Even the atmosphere around the club felt empty. Arteta did not just coach Arsenal. He rebuilt the entire environment. One of Arteta’s first acts as Arsenal head coach, following his appointment in December 2019, was to call his players into a meeting and flip the furniture upside down. His message to the room was that the overturned chairs represented them on the pitch: a complete mess. At the time, the same was true off the pitch. The squad inherited by Arteta lacked many of the basic qualities that a successful team requires. It was full of cliques, unprofessional stars and too many players who simply did not like each other. There were stories of senior squad members barely being able to stand each other. Arsenal had talent, but they did not have unity, trust or collective direction. The first thing Arteta changed was standards. People forget how ruthless he had to be early on. Big names left because they did not fit the culture he wanted. It did not matter how talented they were. He chose suffering in the short term for stability in the long term. That is one of the hardest things to do at a massive football club because supporters always want immediate success. Instead, Arteta stripped everything back and rebuilt from zero. That is why those early years were ugly sometimes. Arsenal finished 8th twice because he was basically tearing the squad apart while trying to build a new football identity at the same time. He inherited a team built for different managers, different ideas and different eras. Some players could not press, some could not play positional football, some could not handle responsibility in possession. So before Arsenal could become beautiful, they first had to become stable. People laughed at the defensive football in the beginning, but it was necessary. He needed to stop Arsenal from being chaotic every week. The FA Cup win in 2020 mattered because it gave players belief that his methods could actually work. But of all Arteta’s qualities as a manager, it is his ability to capture a footballer’s mind and soul that is perhaps the most important. When Arteta first spoke to Riccardo Calafiori, for example, he came into the meeting with pictures of the Italian’s family and asked him to explain what they meant to him. It won Calafiori over, amid strong interest from other big European sides. Declan Rice too, was convinced from the first conversation. Martin Ødegaard once said: “Honestly, I challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.” That ability to emotionally connect with players changed everything at Arsenal. Arteta’s passion, conviction and ability to explain his vision has underpinned every aspect of Arsenal’s rise. He convinced the players to follow him, the club’s owners to back him and the supporters to believe in him on this long, turbulent journey to the top. Then came recruitment. This is where Arsenal became elite again. Every signing had a profile. Arsenal stopped signing random names. They started signing personalities. Ødegaard became the emotional conductor of the team. Quiet leader, obsessive worker, technically secure, tactically intelligent. Arteta saw somebody that could represent how he wanted Arsenal to play. Rice was not signed just because he was a good midfielder. He was signed because he is a mentality monster. Leadership, physicality, discipline, emotional control, consistency. Arsenal needed players that could carry pressure. Ben White was mocked because of the transfer fee, but Arteta saw a defender comfortable in buildup, aggressive in duels and mentally fearless. William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães became the foundation of a monster defence because Arteta wanted defenders that could dominate physically while defending huge spaces. Kai Havertz is another example. Many people did not understand the signing initially, but Arteta saw intelligence, tactical flexibility, pressing ability and emotional resilience. Then there is Bukayo Saka. Saka is probably the biggest representation of Arteta’s Arsenal. Academy player. Humble. Hardworking. Selfless. Elite quality but team-first mentality. Arteta built around him carefully, protected him through difficult periods and turned him into one of the leaders of the project. But what truly separates this Arsenal side is the collective spirit Arteta created. Arsenal have recruited the right characters, set higher standards and forged a sense of genuine belief in their project. The result is a genuinely tight-knit group of players. There is, for example, a group of devout Christians who pray together before matches. Ødegaard and Havertz are such close friends that Havertz was a groomsman at Ødegaard’s wedding. Ødegaard and Havertz are also part of a four-man group, along with White and Leandro Trossard, who play fiercely competitive matches of Parchís on away trips. When Arsenal were looking at signing Noni Madueke, Saka gave a glowing reference because the two wingers have known each other since childhood and their fathers are friends. Piero Hincapié instantly connected with the other South Americans in the squad because of his energy and personality. Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze can often be found having deep conversations about life in the sauna at the training ground. These details matter. This is not just a group of talented footballers. It is a connected dressing room filled with relationships, trust and emotional chemistry. You can see it every week in the way they celebrate blocks, tackles, recoveries and goals together. Arteta has installed a sign at the training ground which reads “WE > ME”, to make the point that the collective must always come above the individual. Over the years, he has used all sorts of methods to build this togetherness. In one season, he showed the squad a picture of a rowing boat and challenged them to call out anybody pulling in the wrong direction. He even invited pilots from the Royal Air Force into the club to speak about communication and collective responsibility. Some people mocked these methods from the outside, but inside Arsenal they became part of the culture shift. And maybe that is the most impressive thing about Arteta’s rebuild: Arsenal stopped behaving like a collection of players and started behaving like an elite team again. Old Arsenal sides used to collapse emotionally under pressure. One setback and heads would drop. This team kept returning stronger after painful moments. Losing title races. Injuries. Criticism. Near misses. Every year they came back more mature, more controlled and more resilient. 2022/23 taught them belief. 2023/24 taught them control. 2024/25 taught them endurance. 2025/26 completed the story. Arteta also rebuilt the connection between the supporters and the club. Fans can forgive mistakes when they see commitment, hunger and emotional investment. This Arsenal side genuinely feels like it belongs to the supporters again. And that is why this title means so much. Because people are not just celebrating one trophy. They are celebrating six years of pain, patience, rebuilding and growth. They watched a young manager walk into a broken football club, remove the toxicity, raise the standards, build relationships, convince elite players to believe in his vision and slowly turn Arsenal back into champions. Arteta did not inherit the best team in England. He built one.

Thank you, Boss

Josh Kroenke to Mikel Arteta in 2020 when Arsenal were sitting in the bottom half of the table: “the only people you can trust are the ones in the room with you right now. Trust me, I believe in you.” Six years later they’re both standing on the Emirates pitch together with Arsenal on the cusp of glory.

Josh taking a more hands-on approach was a real sliding-doors moment. You’d have to say that whatever misgivings we’ve had with the Kroenkes over the years (and there are quite a few) he personally has largely made good decisions on behalf of the club over the last 3 or 4 seasons. I think one of the key moments to look back on if we win this title will be the moments Raul Sanllehi was ousted and the moment Kroenke backed Arteta pushing out big names like Auba and Özil. Those were ballsy decisions from Mikel Arteta but he was only able to make them because the board backed him. So props to them for that. (Bloody shame about the “Super League” fiasco though…)

❤️🤍 Bukayo Saka and Gabriel. 🫂

And he did give his all! So deserved this title