After simply 9 league video games, with lower than 1 / 4 of the Premier League season gone, Arsenal hysteria within the media has set in.
The identical pundits who spent August telling us this was Liverpool’s 12 months once more are actually declaring the title “Arsenal’s to lose.” Yawn.
Photograph by Ryan Pierse/Getty Photographs
Commercial
Just a few weeks in the past, Martin Samuel, a person paid greater than £400,000 a 12 months by The Instances to tell the general public about soccer, was asking, “Why the give up from Liverpool’s rivals?”
Martin Samuel, The Instances, 24 September 2025
Quick ahead one month, Liverpool have gone from 5 factors forward of Arsenal to seven behind, and Samuel is writing about title to be thought of nice, which is honest, I assume.
Martin Samuel, The Instances, 28 October 2025
The narrative has shifted, however the evaluation has not improved.
The present media temper was captured completely by Wayne Rooney, who used his to say the strain is all on Arsenal. “Arteta’s been very shut and so they’ve tallied up quantity of factors in a few these seasons, which in different years may need received them the league,” he mentioned.
Commercial
“They’re actually anticipated to win a league. They grind out outcomes, they’re bodily, they’ve obtained good attacking gamers, so if one isn’t doing it, the subsequent one will. They’re strong on the again. The strain is now are you able to be high of the league? Are you able to keep there? I feel they will. They’ve had these experiences, which has obtained them shut.
“They’re prepared for it. There’s no excuse, the gamers they’ve introduced in. You’d in all probability see a change of supervisor in the event that they don’t win it now.”
Photograph by Alex Pantling/Getty Photographs
Actually?
Arsenal would sack Mikel Arteta, a rookie supervisor who has taken extra factors than some other Premier League aspect over the previous three-and-a-bit seasons, rebuilt all the tradition of the membership, guided Arsenal to a Champions League semi-final, and turned the Emirates into one of many hardest grounds in Europe?
Commercial
The supervisor Martin Zubimendi ? The person ? The person who constructed each aspect of this staff you assume is so good it has ‘no excuses’?
Do these individuals hear themselves?
Photograph by Alex Pantling/Getty Photographs
Rooney’s feedback are a beautiful instance of the wilful nonsense that defines a lot soccer commentary round Arsenal.
“There’s no excuse, the gamers they’ve introduced in,” he mentioned. But when that logic utilized equally, then Liverpool, who spent €145m on Alexander Isak, €125m on Florian Wirtz, and €95m for Hugo Ekitike, along with €118m on others, must be underneath an identical strain. Ditto Manchester Metropolis, who’ve spent £450m over the previous two seasons and £709.5m over three.
Commercial
As a substitute, Liverpool are having a “transition season” as pundits scramble for excuses and Metropolis are simply, properly, Metropolis. Their stage of scrutiny has by no means actually been the place it must be.
Photograph by Alex Pantling/Getty Photographs
Let’s be clear: Arsenal are favourites for each the Premier League and the Champions League as a result of they’ve earned that standing. They’ve what it takes to win one – or each – of them. However, after simply 9 video games within the league and three in Europe, it’s absurd to declare any title theirs to lose, which was the dominant Arsenal narrative on many soccer podcasts after this weekend.
Arsenal are 4 factors away from Bournemouth, 5 forward of Tottenham, six forward of Manchester Metropolis and United, and 7 away from Liverpool. A 12-point swing in a month has already proven how shortly narratives collapse.
Commercial
4 video games can change every part, as we’ve simply seen.
The Instances, 27 October 2025
The obsession with Arsenal “bottling” the league has develop into its personal sub-genre of punditry.
Out of the supposed three “bottles” in recent times, Arsenal in all probability solely genuinely faltered as soon as and even then they completed inside 5 of Metropolis, 9 forward of third place, with Arteta barely out of his managerial nappy.
Liverpool had been fifth that 12 months, 17 factors behind Arsenal after pushing Metropolis to inside some extent the season earlier than. Did they bottle it? I don’t do not forget that story.
The next 12 months, if Spurs had any satisfaction, the Premier League would have gone to their north London rivals. Lacking out on a title by two factors on the final day to probably the most costly groups ever assembled is bottling it? Actually?
Commercial
Final season, an impressed Mohamed Salah and a mixed handy Liverpool the benefit. There was no collapse, solely good luck vs very unhealthy luck. Metropolis really did collapse within the league, however no person mentioned they’d bottled it.
Regardless of all this, a lot of the press nonetheless seems to be for causes to undermine Arsenal. It’s not laborious to see why. Loads of these within the media field maintain affections for golf equipment that traditionally hate Arsenal, a bias that filters by way of their protection. It has all the time been thus.
Arsenal failing makes them happier than Arsenal doing properly. Everyone knows it.
This season is completely different, and so they know that, too.
Commercial
Arsenal’s management, depth and depth are in contrast to something seen on the membership in 20 years.
It’s a season to genuinely imagine once more, to get pleasure from the potential of one thing extraordinary and long-overdue occurring.
Perception is a part of soccer’s pleasure.
However expectation is one thing else. Arsenal may be one of the best staff within the league, even perhaps in Europe, however soccer has by no means been so simple as that.
High quality, accidents, luck, and effective margins resolve titles, not podcasts, pundits or press narratives, regardless of how laborious they fight.
We will all hope Arsenal will win it. We will even assume they could.