Inside Arsenal's Premier League title celebrations: Saka message, Wright popping bottles and a 5am meet up | OneFootball

Bukayo Saka leads celebrations as Gunners cherish historic title win

Saka has been at the club since he was eight. He has been there for every day of Mikel Arteta's reign, all the near misses, and now he was ready to let loose.

There is a blacked-out silhouette of the Premier League trophy at Arsenal's training ground, one that the players walk past every day.

It has been dark for years, only to be lit up once Arsenal had won the league and finally that can now happen. Shortly after Manchester City's draw with Bournemouth confirmed Arsenal as champions, Saka walked over to the trophy with Jurrien Timber.

He said: “Light that up! Let me tell you something - 22 years, 22 years they were laughing, they were joking.

Saka then shared a hug with Arsenal's club photographer Stuart MacFarlane who was there to play his part in documenting an historic night.

However, while he opted to stay at home and be with his family on what proved to be the decisive night, the Arsenal players and other staff members congregated at the training ground.

Seats were set up in rows in front of a screen. William Saliba, sat next to birthday boy Riccardo Calafiori, was a particularly nervous watcher, gesticulating at the screen and trying to marshal the Bournemouth defence from more than 100 miles away.

As the final seconds of the match ticked away, everyone stood up and crowded together. The full-time whistle blew and bedlam ensued.

Piero Hincapie was front and centre of the scrum. He had an Arsenal-branded bottle in his hand he pretended to drink from, the same type of bottle a Manchester City fan went viral for using to mock the Gunners.

That was an image that had clearly stuck with the Arsenal players. Odegaard was seen drinking from a similar bottle at around 3am.

Gabriel took to Instagram to post a side-by-side of that City fan, with one image of him trolling Arsenal and another from Tuesday night, dejected at the Vitality Stadium. He captioned it: "Think too much."

Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly enjoyed a moment to themselves. With Saka hyping him up, Lewis-Skelly held up a bottle of champagne and said: “They called us bottlers, and now we’re holding the bottles.”

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Wavin’ Flag by K’naan was among the songs played in the main room and belted out. We Are The Champions was high up on the playlist too.

The TikTok song that has become an anthem for the squad unsurprisingly featured, during which Declan Rice picked up Andrea Berta as the club director then crowd-surfed between players.

Mikel Merino posted a picture of Win, the club dog loved by the players and staff, sitting on a chair with a bottle of champagne next to her.

The squad then gathered for a team photo behind a cut-out of the Premier League. They will get their hands on the real thing on Sunday at Selhurst Park.

A massive crowd had by now congregated at the Emirates Stadium but hundreds of supporters also turned up at the training ground.

William Saliba stopped to high-five some through his car window as he drove out. Gabriel, on his way home where he was greeted by friends and family for more celebrations, stood up through the sun roof of his car to whip up the fans.

Rice, Odegaard, Ben White and Leandro Trossard were sat together on the bus that took the majority of the squad away to continue the celebrations elsewhere. They pumped their fists as they filmed the chaos outside.

At around 5am, the celebrations among the players had died down but four of them decided they had not had enough.

Rice, Saka, Timber and Eberechi Eze decided to go to the Emirates, where some fans were still milling around after the carnage of the night before.

They took pictures with fans. Rice even gathered supporters around him to take a photo on his own phone.

Eze/Instagram

The group walked past Thierry Henry's statue, down the stairs and eventually got in a car waiting for them near The Armoury. Just a few hours earlier, tens of thousands of supporters had staged impromptu celebrations on that same street.

Ian Wright was among them, popping bottles of champagne. Club mascot Gunnersaurus bounced up and down with the crowd as fireworks were launched into the sky.

There will be more celebrating to do on Sunday with the trophy lift and then again seven days after that, when the parade takes place.

It could be a double celebration, too, if Arsenal beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

That will be a tough task, but the scenes on Tuesday night made it clear a weight has now been lifted.