Arsenal are Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years after Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw by Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The result, which leaves Arsenal four points clear of City with just one game of the season remaining, is mathematically insurmountable and confirms Mikel Arteta’s side as the 2025/26 English top-flight champions.

It ends a 22-year wait stretching back to the iconic 2003/04 Invincibles season, and marks Arsenal’s 14th major English league title in their history.

The Gunners had led the table for much of the campaign, but the title race had remained tense heading into the evening’s fixtures.

City required a win at Bournemouth to reduce Arsenal’s advantage to just two points and take the race to the final day of the season. They came agonisingly close to doing so, but ultimately could not find a way past a resolute Bournemouth side.

The opening goal came in the 39th minute, when 19-year-old forward, Junior Kroupi was released by Marcus Tavernier before Adrien Truffert cut the ball back from the left, allowing the teenager to curl a stunning finish into the right corner. In doing so, Kroupi became the outright highest-scoring teenager in a debut Premier League season. City pressed desperately for an equaliser and Pep Guardiola introduced Phil Foden, Savinho and Rayan Cherki in an attacking triple substitution, but it was only in the fifth minute of stoppage time that Erling Haaland pulled City level. By then, it was far too late.

The full-time whistle triggered scenes of wild jubilation outside Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, where thousands of supporters had gathered to follow events.

Midfielder, Declan Rice posted a photograph on Instagram of himself celebrating with teammates, accompanied by the caption: “I told you all.” For Arteta, the triumph is deeply personal. He took charge of Arsenal in 2019 and endured three consecutive seasons as runner-up in the Premier League — watching City chase down Arsenal’s lead to win the title in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024, before Liverpool pipped them to the crown last year. In winning the title, Arteta also becomes the first former Premier League player to win the championship as a manager.

The evening carried an additional narrative strand in the form of Pep Guardiola, with the City manager widely reported to be stepping down at the end of the season after a decade in charge at the Etihad.

Guardiola had been targeting a seventh Premier League title in England, as well as a second domestic treble having already won the League Cup and FA Cup this term. Instead, the draw at Bournemouth is likely to represent his penultimate match as City manager, with the Spaniard bowing out without the title he craved.

For Bournemouth, the evening also had its own significance: it was the final home game of head coach Andoni Iraola, who received a rousing send-off from the Vitality Stadium crowd ahead of being succeeded by Marco Rose in the summer. The Cherries, on a run of 17 league games without defeat, remain in contention for Champions League qualification heading into the final day.

Arsenal will take a victory lap when they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday for the final Premier League fixture of the campaign, before turning their attention to arguably an even greater prize on 30 May, when they face reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest, Hungary.

Should they triumph at the Puskás Aréna, it would crown 2025/26 as the greatest season in Arsenal’s history.