Arsenal have long been one of the defining clubs of the Premier League era, but their route through it has not always been smooth. There have been difficult periods early in the competition\u2019s history, and more turbulence after Ars\u00e8ne Wenger\u2019s exit. Even so, there have also been seasons that stood out for their quality, their momentum and the standard of football on display.<\/p>\n
Looking across the club\u2019s Premier League history, three campaigns in particular capture different points in that story. One marked a return to the top under Wenger, another delivered a dominant double, while a more recent season suggested the present side was finally approaching something significant again.<\/p>\n
Wenger\u2019s first full season in charge, 1997\u201398, began with doubt surrounding his appointment. Yet the response was immediate. Arsenal recovered from a midseason spell that had dropped them to sixth and finished strongly, winning 13 of their final 18 matches. That surge carried them to the title, one point clear of Manchester United, before a 2\u20130 win over Newcastle United at Wembley sealed the double and gave Wenger the ideal start in English soccer.<\/p>\n
The 2001\u201302 season was even more emphatic. Arsenal lost none of their league matches after Christmas and won all 12 of their final fixtures, including a 1\u20130 victory at Manchester United with the championship at stake. They finished seven points clear, while individual honours followed across the squad. Thierry Henry won the Golden Boot with 24 goals, Robert Pir\u00e8s was named FWA Footballer of the Year, Freddie Ljungberg collected the Barclaycard Player of the Year award, and Dennis Bergkamp\u2019s strike against Newcastle was voted Goal of the Season. The campaign ended with another FA Cup final win, 2\u20130 against Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Then came 2023\u201324, a season that did not deliver a trophy beyond the Community Shield, but still carried major significance. Arsenal amassed 89 points, their highest total since the 90 of the Invincibles in 2003\u201304, yet still finished behind Manchester City after stumbling late. Even so, the sense was that the team under Mikel Arteta had finally put the right pieces together. William Saliba and Gabriel formed a strong defensive pair, Declan Rice gave control and authority in midfield, and Bukayo Saka had already become a major figure out wide. The title was missed, but the level was unmistakable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal\u2019s Premier League story includes title wins, doubles and a near-miss that showed real progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1162,59,182],"class_list":["post-19107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}