And then there were nine! After Arsenal and Manchester City, both won 4-1 at home, against Leeds and Liverpool respectively, the title run-in has officially begun.
Manchester City have been in plenty of title run-ins over the last decade, while Arsenal have not seriously challenged for the League title for nearly 20 years and the Invincibles era. But can the Gunners possibly draw inspiration from previous Arsenal title run-ins as they bid to win the club’s 14th Championship?
Here are Arsenal’s Five Finest Title Run-ins to date, going back nearly a century to the Gunners’ first-ever title win. They are listed not in chronological order, but in order of historical magnitude – and sheer excitement.
Arsenal’s Five Finest Title Run-Ins In History
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1930-31: Arsenal’s First-Ever Title Win
More than 90 years on, there cannot be anyone still alive who actually saw Arsenal secure their first-ever league title, but that should not diminish from the scale of the achievement. The hardest trophy to win is always the first and when Arsenal finally won the title in 1931, nearly half a century after the club had been founded in 1886, it laid the groundwork for the decade of domination that Arsenal would enjoy in the 1930s and all the other success that came afterward.
However, things did not get off to a good start in that particular title run-in. Arsenal didn’t just lose the first of their last 10 games that season; they were absolutely annihilated as they lost 5-1 away at Aston Villa, their closest challengers.
Thereafter, however, the Gunners were imperious, going the rest of the season unbeaten as they won seven and drew two. And the historic first-ever title for the club was secured with two games to spare after they beat Liverpool 3-1 at home in mid-April to give them an unbeatable lead in the table. And to make the victory even sweeter, it was achieved ahead of runners-up Aston Villa, the team that had thrashed them just weeks earlier.
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2001-2002: Winning The Title At Old Trafford
Fast forward nearly 70 years and Arsenal clinched another historic league title (their 12th in total) in the grandest of styles. As all the old songs have it, “We Won The League In Manchester!”, as Arsenal completed an extraordinary unbeaten run at the end of the season to beat Manchester United 1-0 at their own ground.
It was fitting that Arsenal won the 2001-02 title away from home as that team was effectively “The Away Invincibles”, going unbeaten away from home all season, with their only three league defeats all season all coming at home. And it was also a testament to the incredible squad depth that Arsène Wenger had assembled by that time. When Arsenal’s two first-choice strikers, Thierry Henry, and Dennis Bergkamp, were both ruled out of the title decider through injury, Wenger was able to choose two superb replacements in Sylvain Wiltord and Kanu. And they combined for the winner that secured Wenger’s second league title.
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1997-1998: Winning The Title At Old Trafford (Sorta)
In 2002, Arsenal clinched the title at Manchester United’s home ground. Four years earlier, they actually secured the vital points at home, when they thrashed Everton 4-0 to become champions with two games to spare (as in 1930-1931). However, in the minds of many Arsenal fans, there was no doubt where the title was actually won and that was at Old Trafford.
In the last few months of the 1997-98 season, Arsenal effectively reeled in Alex Ferguson’s United side, who were going for a hat-trick of league titles and a fifth title in six seasons. At one point, Arsenal were actually 12 points behind United but that seemingly unbridgeable gap was actually illusory, as Arsenal had three games in hand. The Gunners then embarked on what would become a trademark of Wenger’s great Arsenal sides – a long, unbeaten run at the end of the season to clinch the title.
READ MORE: Five Famous Arsenal Home Wins Over Manchester United
Crucially, that encompassed a late-season win at Old Trafford. In 2002, Sylvain Wiltord scored the winner away at Manchester United, but four years earlier it was Marc Overmars who got the all-important goal. And Arsenal never looked back in ’98, winning their next eight games to secure Wenger’s first league title win.
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1970-71: Winning The Title At White Hart Lane (For The First Time)
With the exception of 1930-31, when Arsenal beat Aston Villa to the title, the common theme among all these incredible title run-ins is that The Gunners beat the then-dominant team in England to the title, and by chance, they were all Northern Giants – great sides from the north of England. Incredible as it may seem now, more than a half-century on, Leeds United were once one of those Northern Giants, and in 1970-71 they, and not the Gunners, were the favourites to win the title.
It was neck and neck between the two teams for most of the season and with three matches to go Leeds actually beat Arsenal 1-0 at home. Nevertheless, Arsenal still held their own fate in their own hands, knowing that if they won their last two games they would still be champions.
The first was relatively straightforward, a home match against Stoke that they won 1-0. But the final league match of the season was anything but, as it was away at White Hart Lane. Because of the complexities of the goal average system at the time (which was eventually replaced by goal difference in 1976-77), Arsenal did not even necessarily have to win at Spurs; bizarrely, a goalless draw would have been enough, whereas a 1-1 draw would not have been. Thankfully for all Arsenal fans, John Radford rendered all such mathematical calculations meaningless when he scored a late winner to secure Arsenal’s first league title in 18 years.
1. Anfield 89
“Anfield 89,” says it all: the greatest end to any league title campaign anywhere ever. And before any Manchester City fan should even think of offering up “Aguerrooooo!” in 2012, that was a last-minute victory at home against a team fighting relegation. Anfield 89 was a 2-0 win – and it had to be a victory by at least two goals so that Arsenal could win the title on goal difference – against not just the best team in England but arguably the best team in Europe, on their own ground and just to add a further level of difficulty, in 1989, of course, Liverpool were absolutely desperate to win the title for their fans after the horrors of Hillsborough just a few months earlier. The fact that Arsenal beat them, with the very last kick of the game, makes it undoubtedly the greatest end to any football match ever.
READ MORE: Single-Minded Arsenal Can Beat Treble-Chasing City To The League
It also puts into perspective the scale of the challenge that Arsenal faces in the final 10 games of the 2022-23 season. Yes, Manchester City are the reigning champions and have a much stronger and deeper squad than Arsenal. And yes, Arsenal have a much tougher run-in, with three extremely hard away games at Liverpool, Newcastle, and at City’s own ground, The Etihad. But compared to 1989, those are all surmountable obstacles. Arsenal’s Anfield 89 win was virtually impossible, yet they did it. And if they could beat Liverpool, at home, to win the title in 1989, they can certainly beat City to the title in 2023.
