LONDON -- Arsenal's mammoth 63-game season is finally over. It tested the club to the limit: bringing historic success with a first Premier League title in 22 years, but also agonizing failure after losing the UEFA Champions League final to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties.
Whatever the bittersweet feeling after Saturday's 4-3 shootout defeat in Budapest, Hungary, only pride was on display a few hours later as hundreds of thousands of fans lined a five-mile route around north London to celebrate a team that had clawed its way back to the summit of English soccer.
The Gunners' campaign has been an emotional roller coaster for all concerned, fighting against the dual weight of expectation and history by navigating an almost unbearably tense run-in to beat Manchester City to the title by seven points in the end.
There was almost immediately a sense after losing to PSG that Arsenal will come again. In the middle of the parade, midfielder Declan Rice stared into a camera declaring: "We will be back for more."
Meanwhile, director Ben Winston wrote on Instagram: "I remember this feeling coming home from Paris in 2006 [when Arsenal lost the UCL final to Barcelona]. But that was the end of an era. This is the start of one."
This optimism comes from the knowledge that Arsenal are now a different animal. That evolution is not over, but the progress is undeniable. This is the story of how the club got there.
Mikel Arteta's search for joy
Arsenal head coach Arteta is a soccer obsessive; it is the main factor driving him to become one of the world's elite. Sources say he gets up around 5.30 a.m. in the morning each day, starting his day with an Americano coffee and perhaps some scrambled eggs.
The 44-year-old former midfielder is often one of the first to arrive at Arsenal's Sobha Realty training center, although he carves out time in his day for meditation. Sources have told ESPN that, last summer, Arteta was trying to make a conscious effort to acknowledge the pleasurable aspects of his job and recognize softer moments among the relentless pursuit of progress.
For example, winger Noni Madueke had expressed a desire to join up with the Arsenal squad immediately after completing his £48.5 million move from Chelsea despite being part of the squad which won the Club World Cup in July. Arteta was initially impressed by that, but later thought better of it, believing that the player should relax and not be given such an unrelenting schedule at the start of his Arsenal career.
His messaging reflected an ongoing battle to find a balance with this all season. Sources close to multiple players speak of Arteta's relentless intensity which keep standards high, but can also contribute to the feeling that the season is something of a grind.
Perhaps the most obvious case came when Arsenal lost at home to Manchester United on Jan. 25. The next day, the squad and staff held a meeting at the training ground where they attempted a mental reset, telling them: Enjoy the moment you are in, don't be consumed by it.
On Jan. 27, Arteta held a news conference where he encouraged fans to "jump in this boat because it's going to be fun" after admitting they needed to "bring the temperature down."
The message didn't always ring true. Many games, particularly at home, were nervous affairs with Arsenal's focus on defensive resilience, minimizing risk and maximizing set pieces, creating games of fine margins.
After losing to Manchester City in a potentially key league game on April 19, there was a reset of a different kind. The manner of their 2-1 defeat at Etihad Stadium -- narrowly losing a tight game which could have gone either way to a 90th-minute Erling Haaland goal -- gave the players renewed optimism they could get over the line with five games left.
In the week following that defeat, Arteta went for dinner with his staff, including Gabriel Heinze, at La Patagonia Restaurant in north London and, over an Argentinian steak, they fine-tuned their approach.
Arteta would later publicly declare Arsenal were at the start of a new five-game season, and that focus helped sharpen minds to seize the moment as they won all their remaining league fixtures. After all, there is no joy like winning.
Style or substance?
Closely linked to this pursuit of happiness was the team's style of play. Arsenal's summer transfer strategy was to add depth to the squad in various positions to enable Arteta to rotate without diminishing the quality of the XI he could put out.
Winning the Premier League and losing the Champions League final on penalties can only vindicate that approach. But there were times when it felt like an almighty struggle.
Sources told ESPN that there was an acknowledgment within the club there would be a change in style to extract the best from Viktor Gyökeres, the striker signed from Sporting CP for an initial €63 million last summer.
There were signs of this during the club's preseason tour of Singapore and Hong Kong which continued into the early part of the season: chiefly an attempt to get the ball forward quicker and avoid the "horseshoe" football which had helped create control without sufficient penetration in many matches the previous season.
However, Gyökeres' slow start -- he scored just five goals in 15 league games -- and Kai Havertz's injury issues led Arteta to ask central midfielder Mikel Merino to reprise his emergency striker's role. And it worked; Arsenal found themselves top of the Premier League and going well in the Champions League.
There is a sense that Arsenal were caught between the team they were -- which was proving effective in the present again -- and the team they wanted to be. That and the sheer weight of expectation contributed to a series of conservative and risk-averse performances.
Injuries across the front line did not help, nor did the injury-enforced absence of the right-sided axis of Jurriën Timber, Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka -- by some distance Arsenal's most potent avenue of attack -- for the vast majority of the campaign.
Perhaps lessons from history -- when accusations of naivety or individual mistakes had so often undone Arsenal -- also informed Arteta's inherently cautious approach. But the extreme version of that, in the Champions League final where they registered just 25% possession and had one shot on target, was a long way from the more direct, front-foot style they had discussed at the start of the campaign.
PSG can do that to any team, of course, but it felt pointed that Arteta referenced afterward the need to be "very ambitious" in the market this summer, while also acknowledging PSG's individual quality. That hints at a desire to add one or two elite forwards to the group which can, in turn, end the club's reliance on set pieces and turn Arsenal into the more dynamic side Arteta would like them to be.
Gyökeres ended the season with 21 goals in all competitions, a respectable return, but question marks persist over his ability at the highest level and whether he is the right player to reshape the team's style around. Arsenal's approach in the market this summer will bring clarity to that debate.
Togetherness and marginal gains
Everywhere you look there are little nods to fostering greater team spirit. Heinze, brought in last summer as a new coach to replace Carlos Cuesta, is often seen holding a huddle with the defensive unit during warmups.
Behind the scenes, the players grew closer in various ways. A Spanish board game called "Parchis" is a squad favorite. Leandro Trossard, Ben White, Havertz and Ødegaard are particularly competitive; they play doubles together and keep a running score. The card game Uno is also popular.
In October, a small group of senior players went to Arteta and asked to organize a team dinner in London. Meanwhile, sources say Ødegaard and Madueke got to know each other a lot better during November as both players underwent rehabilitation from similar knee injuries.
Senior executives have also helped. Sources describe cochair Josh Kroenke as a calming presence around the training ground, acting as a confidante to Arteta and, while maintaining a soft touch, offering messages of support when needed.
Winning always helps but Arsenal have had vital buy-in from fringe players rarely involved in first-team matches. In October, Arteta described backup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga as "No. 1" in terms of "dressing room behavior and culture."
Of course, he was nowhere near being Arsenal actual No. 1; he would play just 12 games behind star David Raya all season, and only one in the Premier League -- on the final day at Crystal Palace.
Equally, sources have credited 32-year-old midfielder Christian Nørgaard with a positive influence on some of the younger players, but he too would start only 12 games following a £10 million move from Brentford. Again, his sole start in the Premier League came when the title was already won at Selhurst Park.
Sources have told ESPN that certain players recommitted themselves to the club after uncertain futures last summer. White and Gabriel Martinelli feared they may have been moved on last summer had the right offers come in, but both played their part when called upon.
Ødegaard was integral as captain to helping develop team harmony; he organized team dinners and stepped up by performing additional media duties when certain players were unable to fulfil their responsibilities.
Rice had been called into Arteta's office after two games and shown a series of clips of things he was doing incorrectly -- one aspect was he and Martín Zubimendi staying closer together to ensure the passing distances between them were short -- but came to the fore in the latter stages of the season and took the captain's armband at the behest of the players when both Ødegaard and Saka were out injured. He also choose to face the media in a rare mixed zone appearance before Arsenal played City in April, while sources added that he had earlier been vocal in a dressing room confrontation after Arsenal allowed a 2-0 lead to slip in a 2-2 draw with bottom club Wolves in February.
Mentality translated to performance. Arsenal became the first team in Premier League history to go the entire season without conceding a penalty or receiving a red card. The issue of red cards had been identified as an area to improve last summer after six dismissals (the highest tally of any club in the top flight) had cost them precious points in the 2024-25 campaign.
And then there were the injuries. Although Arsenal struggled again with various players out for prolonged periods, they were able to call on the vast majority of the squad for the run-in. Havertz's return from a knee injury in May, for example, was carefully managed so he could be available for the biggest games in the final few weeks.
Arteta drafted in Spanish physio and longtime friend Joaquin Acedo to analyze the squad's injury problems, in addition to the already established practice of reviewing how the club manage load and evaluate injuries every few months.
Arteta's sessions and game plans are so physically demanding that Arsenal went through a spate of injuries in warmups, with defender Riccardo Calafiori suffering twice and winger Saka breaking down at Elland Road just before facing Leeds in January. But the issue was solved by the time the run-in came around.
Reconnecting with fans
This has been a steady process under Arteta, with the club's adopted song "North London Forever" now a firm favorite prematch anthem.
Making Emirates Stadium a more hostile place for opponents to visit and injecting a sense of urgency into every game was a key aspect for this season. Tifos before big games became the norm -- fan group Red Action were influential in November's display before beating Tottenham -- and prior to facing Liverpool on Jan. 8, there was a message on all screens urging fans to be in seats 10 minutes before kick-off because "every supporter has a part to play." The accompanying hype video had the tagline: "Home is where the heat is."
New director Winston has also been instrumental in helping improve relations between the club and fans. Kroenke spoke last month about a lunch he had with Winston after the collapse of the European Super League to better understand the position of the fans, and he is viewed as an important conduit to supporters.
However, there was a danger that the demand for intensity every three days was actually adding to the nervous energy. Home games were almost needlessly tense affairs.
And this is perhaps where the innocence of youth came in. Academy forward Max Dowman broke a series of records this season and among them was a truly iconic moment in March, when he scored at the end of a nerve-shredding game against Everton to become the youngest goal scorer in Premier League history at 16 years and 73 days.
Acting on what Arteta described as a "gut feeling," he finally unleashed left back Myles Lewis-Skelly in his preferred midfield role at the end of the season, with Zubimendi's form dipping through fatigue. And the 19-year-old's impact was stunning as he helped the club beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semifinals and impressed again in the final defeat to PSG.
There is likely much to come from him. And Arsenal.
There are plans afoot to improve the stadium, while revenues are reaching record levels. Arteta hinted at big transfer market moves by calling on the club to be "very ambitious, and the transitional feel at many of their rivals -- with Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all changing managers -- creates a sense of opportunity to cement their status as top dogs.
So when Arsenal fans lined the streets to show their support Sunday, it was both in celebration of what had been and excitement at what could come next.