Arsenal wins its first Premier League title in 22 years after Man City draws with Bournemouth

Arsenal was crowned Premier League champion for the first time since 2004 on Tuesday after Manchester City drew 1-1 with Bournemouth.

The result put an end to City’s title challenge with one round of the season go.

Pep Guardiola’s team needed to win at the Vitality Stadium to take it down to the final game of the campaign on Sunday. But the draw left Arsenal with an unassailable four-point lead at the top, ending its 22-year wait for the title.

Arsenal fans celebrated wildly outside its Emirates Stadium.

City threatened another twist when Erling Haaland scored in stoppage time to equalize Junior Kroupi’s first-half strike, but it was too late to find a winner.

Mikel Arteta’s players can now stand alongside club icons Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright, who previously led the club to the summit of English soccer. And Arsenal’s current class could yet break new ground by winning the Champions League for the first time in its history later this month.

Thoughts of this month’s final against defending champion Paris Saint-Germain can be put on the backburner for now.

Now is at time for celebration and relief for Arteta after finishing runner-up in the league three years running.

In back-to-back seasons in 2023 and ’24, he watched as Guardiola’s City chased down Arsenal’s lead to be crowned champion. And another chance was missed last year when coming second to Liverpool.

Once again Arsenal has led the way for most of this campaign and despite seeing its points advantage ebb away during a gripping run-in, it has finally managed to get over the line after a decades-long wait.

Arsenal’s last champion was the so-called “Invincibles” team of 2004, which went an entire campaign without losing in the league.

Since then it has seen Chelsea, Manchester United, City, Leicester and Liverpool all take the title. This is the first time since 2017 that a team other than City or Liverpool has not been crowned champion. It is Arsenal’s 14th title.

Buildup to the game was overshadowed by reports Guardiola would leave at the end of the season after 10 years at the club.

He was aiming to win the title for the seventh title in England and a second domestic treble after winning the League Cup and FA Cup this term. But Kroupi’s curling shot in the 39th minute left City with a mountain to climb.

Bournemouth wasted further chances to extend its lead, and Haaland ensured a tense finish for Arsenal fans when he leveled in the fifth minute of added time.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

James Robson, The Associated Press