Haaland’s stoppage-time equaliser meant nothing in the end. City equalised and it was not enough. Arsenal are champions of England again. First time in twenty-two years.
Twenty-two years. Three near-misses under this manager. Not now.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE VITALITY
Junior Kroupi is 19 and Bournemouth paid £17 million for him in January 2025. By Tuesday night he’d already bagged 12 league goals this season – a Premier League record for a teenager in their first campaign. At the Vitality, with City desperate for three points to keep the title race breathing for even one more day, Kroupi scored number 13.
39th minute. Marcus Tavernier released him in behind, Adrien Truffert cut it back from the left, Kroupi curled it into the right corner past Donnarumma and then did a somersault in front of the home end. The Vitality went completely off its head. Bournemouth were leading Manchester City and Arsenal were four minutes from being champions.
The second half was 45 minutes of City pressing and Bournemouth defending and Petrovic saving and the clock running down. Guardiola put Foden, Savinho and Rayan Cherki on in an attacking triple substitution sometime around the hour mark. Rayan hit the outside of the left post. Brooks had City’s defensive line beaten twice in the last ten minutes and did not score. The second one, right at the death, clipped the right post and stayed out and Bournemouth were about to do it.
Then the fifth minute of added time. Rodri’s shot hit the left post. Scramble in the box. The ball broke to Haaland, right side of the six-yard area. He swept it home. 1-1. The away end went berserk. City had equalised.
But they needed to win. A draw was Arsenal’s title. Full time.
WHERE ARSENAL WERE
The squad had gathered to watch it together. The players who had been through 2022/23 when the lead disappeared in the spring. The ones who had been through 2023/24 when it happened again. Saka and Saliba and Rice and Odegaard and Raya, all of them in the same room watching a game in Bournemouth decide whether this year was going to be different.
When the final whistle went the celebrations were immediate. Arteta said afterwards: “I am so proud of everyone. These players deserve everything. This club deserves it.” Odegaard, composed and measured after the Burnley win, let it all out on Tuesday night. Four years of building. Two crushing collapses. One season where they finally held on.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
82 points from 37 games going into Sunday. City finishing on 78. Five points the final margin. A clean sheet against Burnley, a Havertz header, a Tuesday night in May spent watching someone else’s game.
The corner routine: 17 league goals from corners this season. Eight wins by a single goal. Saliba and Gabriel in central defence, 13 clean sheets together. Raya facing five shots on target in qualifying and the same composure in the league. Arteta’s built Arsenal’s most defensively sound side since the 2004 back line – while simultaneously getting them to a Champions League final and keeping the whole thing upright through an injury crisis that would’ve sunk most teams.
This title-winning squad is a mix: players Arteta signed, players he shaped, players who were there before he walked in. Gyökeres in January. Zubimendi. Hincapié. Added to Saka, Odegaard, Rice, Saliba, Gabriel. The pieces assembled over four years. All of them winning tonight in a room somewhere watching Haaland’s equaliser land and then watching the clock run out.
TWENTY-TWO YEARS
The Invincibles in 2004. Henry and Vieira and Pires and Bergkamp and Ashley Cole. Wenger’s greatest team. Unbeaten for the entire season. Nobody’s matched it since. Nobody probably will. Arsenal remained one of England’s biggest clubs after that without winning the league again.
2022/23: Arsenal led the table for most of the season. City caught them. Second place. 2023/24: same story. Same pain. Different details. Second again.
2025/26: different ending. The lead held. The final run-in held. The squad held together through the Champions League semi-final and the injuries and the nine minutes of stoppage time against Burnley and the wait for Tuesday night. And on a Tuesday night in May in Bournemouth, with Haaland’s equaliser going in and City needing one more goal and not getting it, it was over.
Arsenal have 82 points. More than any Wenger team in the Premier League era. The most points in the most decorated Arsenal league campaign since the year they were unbeatable. Their best season since 2004 just delivered the title. About time.
CRYSTAL PALACE ON SUNDAY
Sunday’s match is pure celebration now. Selhurst Park. The trophy will be there. The open-top bus will come after. Twenty-two years of waiting, three times of coming close, and now the thing itself.
Arsenal are champions.
For full coverage of the title win, every match report and reaction piece from the season, visit our Premier League 2025/26 coverage and the rest of our Arsenal and Premier League news, and if you want to watch the Crystal Palace lap of honour on Sunday, here is our guide to the best ways to stream Premier League games live.