Where are they now? Arsenal’s only trophy-winning XI under Mikel Arteta | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has Arsenal in contention for four trophies this season, so we’re looking back at the first he ever won with the club: the 2019-20 FA Cup.

Arsenal will be going for the first of four available trophies for 2025-26 at the weekend when they take on Manchester City in the EFL Cup final. If we overlook the Community Shield, it’s a chance for the Premier League leaders to win their first piece of silverware since that 2020 triumph.

The squad Arteta has at his disposal these days has been majorly transformed from the one he guided to the FA Cup trophy six years ago.

So what has happened to the players he used when winning the FA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Chelsea?

GK: Emiliano Martinez

Martinez was starting to make a breakthrough with Arsenal towards the end of the 2019-20 season due to Bernd Leno being injured, but it only further ignited his desire to become a number one somewhere else.

Aston Villa bought Martinez later that year and have since used him more than 200 times in the Premier League.

In turn, he also got his wish of becoming Argentina’s first-choice keeper and won the World Cup in 2022.

Martinez was linked with an exit from Villa last summer but ended up staying. He has conceded 29 goals from 26 Premier League games so far this season.

CB: Rob Holding

Holding was in his fourth season as a bit-part player when Arsenal won the FA Cup, but he featured more prominently the season after.

His time with the club came to an end in 2023 after 162 appearances, but his next step with Crystal Palace was a disaster as he only played once.

Following a spell with Sheffield United, Holding moved to MLS side Colorado Rapids in August. He has played nine times for them so far and wore the captain’s armband against LA Galaxy earlier this month.

CB: David Luiz

Luiz completed a second season with Arsenal after their FA Cup success, after which he returned to his native Brazil with Flamengo.

After a brief spell with Fortaleza in 2025, the 38-year-old defender returned to Europe with Cypriot side Pafos. In November, he became the second-oldest goalscorer in Champions League history.

CB: Kieran Tierney

Tierney was in his first season with Arsenal after joining from Celtic when he became an FA Cup winner.

The defender returned to Celtic in the summer after his contract expired, having fallen out of favour at the Emirates Stadium. So far, his second spell with Celtic has included 43 appearances, five goals and 11 assists.

RWB: Hector Bellerin

Bellerin took a while to settle at another club after initially leaving Arsenal on loan for Real Betis in 2021. Subsequent spells with Barcelona and Sporting CP lasted half a season each.

The right-back returned to Betis in 2023, this time with a permanent contract. He has made 61 appearances in all competitions since, but missed four months through injury last season.

CM: Dani Ceballos

Ceballos earned a second season on loan at Arsenal after their FA Cup success, before returning to parent club Real Madrid in 2021.

He remains there to this day after adding more than 150 more appearances to his Madrid collection, although he has often been linked with an exit and that could well materialise this summer, when he will turn 30.

CM: Granit Xhaka

When Arteta replaced Unai Emery as Arsenal boss, it wasn’t long after Xhaka had been stripped of the captaincy. Although he looked likely to leave at the time, he turned his Arsenal career around.

Xhaka ultimately stayed until 2023, heading off for a two-season adventure with Bayer Leverkusen – becoming an invincible Bundesliga champion at the first time of asking – before returning to the Premier League with Sunderland in the summer.

Sunderland appointed Xhaka as their captain and he has played 28 times for them so far.

LWB: Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Maitland-Niles was nearing the beginning of the end of his Arsenal career by the time he became an FA Cup winner. Half a season later, he went on loan to West Brom.

There were further loans to Roma and Southampton before he left for Lyon on a free transfer in 2023. He has now made more than 100 appearances for the French side, usually at right-back.

RW: Nicolas Pepe

After becoming Arsenal’s record signing in 2019, Pepe came to be widely perceived as a flop – more so for not meeting the expectations of his £72m price tag than his otherwise moderately respectable record of 27 goals from 112 games.

Pepe spent the 2022-23 season on loan with Nice before Arsenal allowed him to leave on a free transfer for Trabzonspor. These days, he plays for Villarreal, for whom he’s scored seven goals from 65 games.

ST: Alexandre Lacazette

Lacazette left Arsenal in 2022 after scoring 71 goals in 206 games for the club. His next step was a return to his former club, Lyon.

The striker left European football altogether in the summer after 72 goals for Lyon over three seasons. Now, he plays for Neom in the Saudi Pro League, scoring 12 goals from 27 games so far.

LW: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Captain at the time of their FA Cup triumph, Aubameyang has struggled to settle at any club after leaving Arsenal in 2022.

A short spell with Barcelona included some inspiring form, but a Premier League return with Chelsea proved to be a disaster.

Two spells with Marseille have followed, separated by a season in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Qadsiah. Aubameyang, now 36, has scored 12 goals and added 10 assists from 34 games for Marseille this season.

SUB: Eddie Nketiah

The first substitute to enter the fray in the 2020 FA Cup final for Arsenal was Nketiah, who had been recalled from an unproductive loan spell with Leeds United earlier that season.

Nketiah stayed with Arsenal until the summer of 2024, when he moved across London to Crystal Palace. He hasn’t kicked on as he would’ve hoped there, scoring 11 goals from 56 games (including four from 19 this season).

SUB: Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Sokratis has now retired from his playing career, ending his career in 2024 after a spell with Real Betis.

He only spent half a season more with Arsenal after their FA Cup win, before his contract was terminated and he spent two years back in his native Greece with Olympiacos and then a final campaign in Spain.

SUB: Sead Kolasinac

Kolasinac left Arsenal on loan for his former club Schalke in the same transfer window that Sokratis left.

A permanent exit for the Bosnian followed a year later, when he was acquired by Marseille. He spent 18 months in France before joining Atalanta in 2023.

The defender became a Europa League winner in his debut season with Atalanta and is now closing in on 100 appearances in their colours.