The Eight Most Important Games in Arsenal’s Premier League Title Win | OneFootball

From injury-time winners to statement performances, we’ve picked out what we consider to be the eight most important games in Arsenal’s 2025-26 Premier League title-winning campaign.

Every win earns you three points. But some wins carry far more weight than others.

Arsenal won 25 games ahead of being crowned Premier League champions in 2025-26. Some of those were dominant displays where they blew away their opponents; some were dramatic comebacks or last-minute winners to keep momentum alive; others were scrappy victories that champions sometimes simply need to find.

All of them mattered. But we’ve done our best to pick out the eight games that proved most important in Arsenal finally ending their 22-year wait for a Premier League title.

Arsenal 1-1 Manchester City – 21 September 2025

We begin with a game that Arsenal didn’t even win.

The two teams that proved to be the main protagonists in the title race met at the Emirates Stadium in September, with Arsenal rescuing what would prove to be a hugely significant point thanks to Gabriel Martinelli’s 93rd-minute equaliser.

In truth, Arsenal deserved at least that. Few teams have dominated a Pep Guardiola side in the way Arsenal did here. In what was the Spaniard’s 601st top-flight league game as a manager, City had just 33.2% of the ball, the lowest figure for any Guardiola team in any league game.

City also managed only seven touches inside Arsenal’s penalty area, their fewest in a Premier League game under Guardiola.

The result meant Mikel Arteta became the first manager ever to go five consecutive league games unbeaten against Guardiola, and it felt like a significant psychological moment as much as anything else. For years, Arsenal had looked like challengers trying to dethrone City. This was one of the clearest signs that the balance of power might finally be shifting.

At that stage, though, City did not even appear Arsenal’s likeliest challengers. Liverpool had opened the campaign with five straight wins and sat top of the table after this weekend’s fixtures, while City had taken only seven points from their opening five matches, their worst return at that stage of a season since Stuart Pearce’s side in 2006-07 (four).

Still, Arsenal’s draw here planted an early marker and stopping City from taking three points would end up being pivotal in the title race.

Newcastle United 1-2 Arsenal – 28 September 2025

The following weekend brought another huge test.

St James’ Park had become one of Arsenal’s least enjoyable away trips in recent seasons. They arrived there having lost their previous three visits without scoring.

For much of this match, it looked as though that trend would continue, as Nick Woltemade’s goal had Newcastle leading heading into the 84th minute. But then came the Arsenal fightback.

First, Mikel Merino flicked home from a clever short-corner routine to level the match. Then, with virtually the final action of the game, Gabriel Magalhães powered in Martin Ødegaard’s corner to complete a stunning turnaround.

“That feels absolutely huge,” said Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville on commentary, and it was hard not to agree.

This was the second-latest that Arsenal have trailed in a Premier League game and gone on to win (equalised in 84th minute), after their 3-1 win over Norwich City in April 2013, when the equalising goal was converted by none other than Mikel Arteta in the 85th minute.

Having saved a late point against City the week prior, Arsenal had left it late again, but this time were able to secure all three points to make ground on leaders Liverpool following their 2-1 loss at Crystal Palace the day before.

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham United – 4 October 2025

Perhaps the most straightforward win on this list, but that did not make it any less significant.

Arsenal brushed past West Ham in a Saturday 3pm kick-off. Declan Rice opened the scoring against his former club before Bukayo Saka converted a second-half penalty in what was Arteta’s 300th game in charge of Arsenal.

But the bigger significance arrived later that evening. Liverpool lost 2-1 away to Chelsea, meaning Arsenal ended Matchday 7 top of the Premier League table.

It was the moment the Opta supercomputer first made Arsenal title favourites, a position they would hold for the remainder of the campaign.

Arsenal 2-1 Wolves – 13 December 2025

One of those games where you simply have to find a way.

Arsenal produced a really laboured performance against bottom-side Wolves in early December, failing to register a single shot on target in the first half of a Premier League home game for the first time since December 2024 against Manchester United.

The second half was not much better, but again, it was a set-piece that put them ahead. Their opener arrived in fortunate fashion, with Saka’s deep corner bouncing off the post before ricocheting in off Wolves goalkeeper Sam Johnstone for an own goal.

That appeared likely to be enough for an ugly win until Tolu Arokodare headed in a dramatic equaliser in the 90th minute.

Arsenal responded immediately. Summoning one final attack, they forced another own goal as Yerson Mosquera headed into his own net under pressure from Gabriel Jesus.

It was a game Arsenal should have won comfortably but instead nearly threw away. In previous seasons, it might have become one of those damaging evenings that derail title bids.

Arsenal 4-1 Aston Villa: 30 December 2025

Coming into this match, Arsenal had lost just two of their 27 competitive matches in 2025-26 – one of those was against Aston Villa at Villa Park in the Premier League just over three weeks before this return clash.Former Gunners manager Unai Emery had led his Villa side to 11 successive victories in all competitions, equalling a club record. A 12th win in a row in this clash would have seen Villa draw level on points with Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, and the first half was a cagey affair with the two teams heading into the half-time break level at 0-0.Arteta’s half-time team talk must have had an effect, as his side were 2-0 up inside the opening seven minutes of the second half thanks to goals from Gabriel and Martín Zubimendi.

Further strikes from Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus capped off a fine second-half performance in which they posted their highest xG total (2.59) and joint-most shots (15) in a single half of Premier League football in 2025-26.

The result pushed Arsenal five points clear at the top of the Premier League, ensuring they ended 2025 in first place.

Tottenham 1-4 Arsenal: 22 February 2026

Arsenal may have come into this game 29 points ahead of Spurs in the Premier League table, but it was at a point in the season where the Gunners had shown some vulnerability.

Just four days before this north London derby, Arsenal had inexplicably lost a two-goal lead at bottom side Wolves, with Tom Edozie scoring a 94th-minute equaliser at Molineux.

On the day of the derby, Man City were breathing down Arsenal’s neck, just two points off the Gunners with 11 matchdays left to play after they’d beaten Newcastle a day earlier.Despite being the only team yet to win a Premier League game in 2026, it was Igor Tudor’s first game in charge of Spurs, and there was always the possibility of a new-manager bounce.

Another tight first-half saw the teams go in level at 1-1 at half-time, but an Eberechi Eze-inspired performance saw Arsenal eventually thrash their rivals 4-1.

After his hat-trick versus Spurs earlier in 2025-26, two more goals in this match saw Eze become only the second player to score four or more league goals in north London derbies in a season, along with Ted Drake in 1934-35 (five for Arsenal).

Arsenal 2-0 Everton: 14 March 2026

Arsenal’s 31st game of the Premier League season was one of their tightest in 2025-26. They needed two late, late goals to get past Everton at the Emirates Stadium.

They were below par for the majority of the match and were made to wait until the dying moments for their goals, capitalising on a huge mistake from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to break the deadlock. But in the end, they got the win.

Viktor Gyökeres opening the scoring on 89 minutes, but this game will always be remembered as the night that Max Dowman became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history. At 16 years and 73 days old, he smashed the previous record by 197 days after he raced away to take advantage of an empty net deep in stoppage time.

The late victory was made even more important when in the hours following this clash in north London, Manchester City failed to defeat West Ham in the late kick-off in east London, drawing 1-1.

West Ham 0-1 Arsenal: 10 May 2026

After City had comfortably dispatched Brentford 3-0 a day earlier, Arsenal knew they couldn’t afford to slip up against West Ham.

The Hammers needed the points themselves, sitting in the relegation zone just a point behind Tottenham. They looked like they were going to win a point too, until Leandro Trossard bagged an 83rd-minute winner.

Even then, Arsenal were saved by VAR deep into added time. Pablo’s arm was adjudged to have impeded David Raya at a corner before Callum Wilson rifled home to seemingly level the scores.

Raya had earlier made a superb stop from Mateus Fernandes to keep the scores at 0-0, too.

This win meant that Arsenal had just two games to play: Burnley at home and a Crystal Palace side distracted by the Conference League final on the last day. This was arguably their final big test of the season, and they passed it.

Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.

Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.