After guiding us to the 2025/26 Premier League title, Mikel Arteta has cemented his place in our history as one of our greatest managers of all time.
Our former captain has become the first former Arsenal player to go on and lead us to a top-flight championship as a manager, having ended our 22-year wait after overseeing a huge transformation in our fortunes since taking charge in December 2019.
Since then, Mikel has never finished in a lower position than the previous campaign during his six-and-a-half-year stint in north London. Guiding us to eighth in his first few months in the hot seat – a season that ended with him lifting the FA Cup – he replicated that placing in 2020/21, then progressed us to fifth 12 months later.
He then brought us tantalisingly close to the Premier League title in each of the subsequent three seasons, ultimately all ending in runners-up finishes, but now he has gone one step further and joins the illustrious list of Arsenal managers to have claimed at least one of our 14 league championships:
Manager
Titles won
Herbert Chapman
2 – 1930/31, 1932/33
Joe Shaw
1 – 1933/34
George Allison
2 – 1934/35, 1937/38
Tom Whittaker
2 – 1947/48, 1952/53
Bertie Mee
1 – 1970/71
George Graham
2 – 1988/89, 1990/91
Arsene Wenger
3 – 1997/98, 2001/02, 2003/04
Mikel Arteta
1 – 2025/26
What makes Mikel’s feat all the more remarkable is that he was handed the opportunity to manage us, having never led a team before. The last manager to win the English league title in his first managerial job was Kenny Dalglish, who did so by inheriting the all-conquering Liverpool side of 1980s. Mikel follows in the footsteps of other Gunners bosses who previously achieved that feat: Bertie Mee, Tom Whittaker, George Allison and Joe Shaw.
However, the Spaniard, aged 44 years and 54 days, is the youngest Gunners boss to win the league championship, narrowly pipping George Graham who was 124 days older when he guided us to the silverware in the fabled 1988/89 campaign. Only Jose Mourinho has claimed the Premier League at a younger age than our boss:
Youngest managers to win the Premier League
Season
Manager
Manager Age
2004/05
Jose Mourinho
42 years, 94 days
2025/26
Mikel Arteta
44 years, 54 days
1994/95
Kenny Dalglish
44 years, 71 days
2024/25
Arne Slot
46 years, 222 days
2017/18
Pep Guardiola
47 years, 87 days
2011/12
Roberto Mancini
47 years, 168 days
Mikel is also only the second person to feature in the Premier League as a player and go on to win it as a manager, following on from Roberto Mancini who played for Leicester City in 2001 and guided Manchester City to their first title 11 years, while his mentor Pep Guardiola is the only other Spanish boss to lift the title.
Having guided us to 25 wins this campaign to allow our red ribbons to be tied to the trophy once again, while also powering us to the Champions League final where we will battle with Paris Saint-Germain for the honour of being Europe’s premier club, Mikel has another claim to be seen as one of our managerial greats.
He has now topped the 60% win ratio from his 351 games in charge, a figure that sees him head and shoulders icons such as Wenger, Graham and Chapman:
Best win % as Arsenal manager (min 50 games)
Manager
P
W
D
L
W%
Mikel Arteta
351
212
66
73
60.4%
Arsene Wenger
1235
707
280
248
57.2%
Unai Emery
78
43
16
19
55.1%
Harry Bradshaw
184
96
35
53
52.2%
Herbert Chapman
403
201
97
105
49.9%
George Graham
460
225
133
102
48.9%
Tom Whittaker
429
202
106
121
47.1%
George Allison
279
129
74
76
46.2%
Don Howe
117
54
32
31
46.2%
Terry Neill
416
187
117
112
45.0%
Bertie Mee
540
241
148
151
44.6%
After ending our long wait for a league title, he can now achieve something that no Arsenal manager has ever been able to do in our 139-year history – lead us to become champions of Europe.
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