2004-05 (2nd, 83pts)
The Invincibles were slain in Manchester on Sunday 24 October 2004, when Arsenal’s record 49-match unbeaten run ended in a traumatic, wildly controversial defeat at Old Trafford. It took a month for Arsenal to process their grief and rage; by the time they did, José Mourinho’s remorseless Chelsea had zoomed past them. Though Arsenal were still the most watchable team in England, something had died in them.
2005-06 (4th, 67pts)
An unlikely run to the Champions League final compensated for a tough domestic season. Arsenal were eighth at Christmas, a crushing 20 points behind Chelsea. But they finished strongly and pipped Spurs to a Champions League place on the final day, when Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick against Wigan in the last match at Highbury.
2006-07 (4th, 68pts)
The first season at the Emirates Stadium, and Henry’s last at Arsenal, confirmed Arsenal were in transition. They were never really in the title race, though they did the double over the eventual champions, Manchester United. The season was defined by a desperate 11-day period when they went out of all three cup competitions.
2007-08 (3rd, 83pts)
A young, strikingly pint-sized team, built around Cesc Fàbregas, Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor, led the Premier League for most of the season only to finish third. Arsenal lost one of their first 30 games, but four successive draws in February and March, the first a harrowing game at Birmingham when Eduardo da Silva suffered an horrific leg-break, ultimately cost them the league.
2008-09 (4th, 72pts)
It is hard to make sense of a league season that included four consecutive 0-0 draws, defeat at home to Phil Brown’s Hull and madcap 4-4s against Tottenham and Liverpool. The last of these, with Andriy Arshavin scoring all four goals, helped Manchester United retain the title. To prove the clubs now occupied different worlds, United demolished Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final.
2009-10 (3rd, 75pts)
The first of Arsenal’s forgotten title challenges under Arsène Wenger. They started with a 6-1 gambol at Everton and despite losing home and away to Chelsea and Manchester United, the eventual top two, they were still serious contenders until a wretched five days in mid-April. A first league defeat by Spurs in 11 years was followed by a shambolic collapse at Wigan. Arsenal’s reputation for flakiness was growing.
2010-11 (4th, 68pts)
With Jack Wilshere emerging as a potential superstar, Arsenal were second at the end of February, but won two of their last 11 games. Before that, they blew a 4-0 lead to draw 4-4 at Newcastle, lost at home to Spurs from 2-0 up, then lost the League Cup final to Birmingham, who ended up being relegated. Yet they also come closer than anyone to beating Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona.
2011-12 (3rd, 70pts)
The year the fourth-place trophy was created. Wenger’s phrase, referring to Champions League qualification, would come back to haunt him, but Arsenal achieved their goal in another season of wild swings. They lost 8-2 at Old Trafford, came from 2-0 down to wallop Spurs 5-2 and undressed Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge. Though Arsenal did not win the league, they had the best player in it: Robin van Persie scored 30 goals, hoovered up the individual awards – and then joined Manchester United in the summer.
2012-13 (4th, 73pts)
Arsenal spent almost all of the season outside the top four, only to nick a Champions League place from Spurs at the last. The goals were spread in the absence of Van Persie. There were five scorers in another 5-2 victory over their local rivals, while their top-scorer, Theo Walcott, hit a hat-trick in a 7-3 win over Newcastle.
2013-14 (4th, 79pts)
In the first season after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, the league felt more open than ever. Arsenal topped the table for most of the winter before falling in a heap. They conceded 17 goals away to the eventual top three, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea; a 6-0 defeat by Mourinho’s Chelsea in Wenger’s 1,000th game as Arsenal manager was especially humbling. A frustrating season ended on a high when Arsenal won the FA Cup, their first trophy in nine years.
2014-15 (3rd, 75pts)
A rising rebellion was captured when Wenger was booed by Arsenal fans on the train as the team returned from a 3-2 defeat at Stoke in December. Arsenal were already out of the title race by then, though they improved enormously after Christmas. The signing of Alexis Sánchez added more stardust and they retained the FA Cup, but the league looked further away than ever.
2015-16 (2nd, 71pts)
Wenger’s last title challenge might remain his most frustrating. Arsenal twice beat the champions, Leicester, more than the rest of the league combined, but their erratic results made the little girl with the little curl seem like a model of equilibrium. One consolation: Arsenal finished second for the first time in a decade after leapfrogging Spurs on the final day.
2016-17 (5th, 75pts)
End times. Arsenal missed out on a Champions League place for the first time in 20 years; worse, they finished below Spurs for the first time in 22. An underrated FA Cup triumph, including wins over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Chelsea, provided illusory hope.
2017-18 (6th, 63pts)
For years, Wenger was ridiculed for suggesting a team of diminutive technicians could win the Premier League. He was proved right in 2017-18 … by Guardiola’s Manchester City. Arsenal were further away than ever – they finished 37 points behind City – and Wenger stepped down at the end of the season.
2018-19 (5th, 70pts)
Unai Emery’s first season was a solid meal with a nasty aftertaste. There was a blistering 4-2 win over Spurs and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shared the golden boot, but Arsenal blew a top-four finish by losing three games in eight days at the end of April. The last two Champions League places were claimed by Chelsea, who hammered Arsenal in the Europa League final, and Tottenham.
2019-20 (8th, 56pts)
Arsenal’s poorest league season in a generation. They were eighth when Emery was sacked at the end of the November and finished in the same position – their lowest since 1995 – under his replacement, Mikel Arteta. A stirring post-Covid triumph in the FA Cup, when Manchester City and Chelsea were beaten in the semis and final, offered hope.
2020-21 (8th, 61pts)
Arsenal’s board held their nerve when the side endured a bleak run of seven defeats in 10 league games. They were 15th at Christmas, but three young forwards – Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka – inspired a mood-changing win over Chelsea on Boxing Day. It was Arteta’s little acorn.
2021-22 (5th, 69pts)
An all-or-nothing season in which Arsenal drew only one game after October ended miserably when Spurs nicked the last Champions League place. But there were signs of the team we know now, particularly in the form of Saka and Martin Ødegaard, and the ruthlessness shown by Arteta when he ostracised Aubameyang.
2022-23 (2nd, 84pts)
Arsenal made unwanted history by topping the Premier League for 248 days without winning it. A sparkling young team set an extraordinary pace – 56 points from the first 21 games – before being hunted down by Manchester City. The decisive game was at the Etihad Stadium in April: Kevin De Bruyne put Arsenal across his knee, City won 4-1 and Arteta became a born-again pragmatist.
2023-24 (2nd, 89pts)
The signings of David Raya and Declan Rice gave Arsenal a granite defensive spine and they would probably have won the league but for an epic save by Manchester City’s Stefan Ortega from Spurs’ Son Heung-min in their penultimate match. Instead, and despite winning 16 of their last 18 games, Arsenal finished two points short.
2024-25 (2nd, 74pts)
A third successive runners-up medal equalled the English top-flight record. Though Manchester City’s form collapsed, Arsenal drew 14 games and spent most of the season in the slipstream of a rampant Liverpool. There were significant moments, though: a 5-1 hammering of City and reaching a first Champions League semi-final in 16 years. The jury remained out on whether they were getting closer to glory. A positive verdict was to come the following season.
