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Arsenal Football Club just beat Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. They won 2-1 in the second leg at the Bernabéu Stadium last week after winning 3-0 at home in London the prior week. This win secured Arsenal's place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2009. This victory over the Spaniards was very unexpected. Real Madrid is by far the best team in Champions League history. They are, many would argue, the best team in the world and have the best player in the world in Kylian Mbappé. Despite these odds against them, Arsenal just beat Real Madrid not once, but twice in a row. After completing this 5-1 aggregate victory they now face French team Paris Saint-Germain F.C (PSG) in a two legged Semi Final, at home on April 28th and away in Paris on May 7th.
Arsenal is affectionately known as the ‘Gunners’ and they stand as a towering institution in English football. The club has competed in the prestigious English Premier League (EPL) since 1904. They were relegated and forced to leave the league only one time, before World War 1, in 1913. Since then they have had the longest continuous presence in the league of any club. This is not an easy thing to do. Unlike in the big US sports leagues the EPL has the concept of relegation.
The Premier League has always used a system of promotion and relegation, where teams can move up or down between leagues based on their performance. The bottom three teams with the fewest points at the end of the season are relegated to the Championship. So, the teams who finish in 18th, 19th, and 20th place are relegated to the Championship, which is the second tier of English football. The top two teams in the Championship are automatically promoted to the Premier League, and the next four teams participate in a play-off tournament, with the winner earning the third promotion spot.
Besides for enduring this constant cycle of promotion and relegation and promotion that teams face, the Gunners have shown remarkable consistency for over one hundred years by staying in the EPL. And they have finished top of the Premier league title 13 times. Their record-breaking 14 FA Cup titles highlight their dominance in knockout competitions. Additionally, in other domestic competitions, Arsenal has secured 2 League Cups and 17 FA Community Shields. Their historical success is further underscored by having the second-most top-flight wins in English football history. And they have won both the league and the FA Cup in the same season ('the double') a handful of times. At the close of the 20th century, Arsenal holds the distinction of having the highest average league position out of all Premier League teams.
Looking back at the times they were dominant, the 1930s witnessed a golden age for Arsenal, with the club securing five League titles and two FA Cups. This victories continued after the Second World War with another FA Cup and two more league titles. The 1970–71 season marked a historic milestone as Arsenal achieved their first League and FA Cup double. Between 1989 and 2005, the club enjoyed another period of significant success, winning five League titles and five FA Cups, including two more doubles. From 1991 to 1998 much of that success was owing to a phenomenal striker, Ian Wright. In 1996 the club hired a new manager, Frenchman Arsène Wenger, who managed the club for the next 22 years and brought many new top players on board. Wenger’s picks were good and this brought unprecedented success to the team. Under his guidance, Arsenal won the most trophies in their history, including a record seven FA Cups. His legendary third title-winning team etched their names in football history by achieving an English record of a 49-game unbeaten run in the top flight between 2003 and 2004, earning them the revered nickname "The Invincibles." This squad included players like Thierry Henri, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Patrick Viera and goalkeeper Jens Lehman.
As a result of their incredible success, in 2006 Arsenal embarked on a new chapter with a move to the state-of-the-art Emirates Stadium. Financially, the club continues to be a global powerhouse, with an annual revenue of £448 million in the 2023–24 season. Forbes estimated Arsenal's worth at £2.08 billion, ranking them as the tenth-most valuable football club worldwide. Their global appeal is further evidenced by their ownership. American real estate billionaire, Stan Kroenke, became a shareholder of Arsenal in May 2007 and was appointed to the Board of Directors in September 2008. Via an ownership company he became majority shareholder of Arsenal Football Club in April 2011 and acquired 100 per cent ownership of the Club in 2018. Financials aside, their numerous titles, accolades and wins on the field contributed to Arsenal being recognized as one of the most successful clubs in the world and they have one of the strongest brands worldwide, not just in sports.
So, one would expect them to have won the UEFA Champions League once or twice over the last 75 years of competition. But they have not. And they have had their chances - between 1998 and 2017 Arsenal qualified for the UEFA Champions League for a record 19 consecutive seasons - more than any other club in England. But, despite all of these achievements, incredible players, renowned managers, financial investments, and consistency like no other team, the Gunners have never won the Champions League in Europe. All their biggest rivals in the EPL have won it. Liverpool have won it 6 times, along with wins by Manchester United (3 times), Chelsea (2 times, Nottingham Forest (2 times), Aston Villa (1 time), and Manchester City (1 time). The two Manchester teams have actually won the treble - i.e. the EPL, the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League - all in the same season. Arsenal have managed to win the EPL/FA Cup double three times, but have never some close to a treble. In fact, they have only been in one Champions League final in their history. They lost to Barcelona in the final in 2006. What is more remarkable is that Arsenal had 19 cracks at winning in Europe in a row and they never got through to the final more than once. This is analogous to the Boston Red Sox curse. i.e. how can a team so good and so dominant for so long never have won the ultimate prize in the sport?
Well, this all may be about to change. Arsenal's impressive victory over Real Madrid has propelled them into the Champions League semifinals against Paris Saint-Germain. One of the newer signings, Declan Rice, played a pivotal role in the quarterfinal triumph, scoring two stunning free-kicks in the first leg and earning the man-of-the-match award in the second leg as the Gunners secured a famous win at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid's home stadium. Those two free kicks were phenomenal (see video below) and would have been expected from a player like David Beckham back in the day, perhaps. But Declan Rice is a defensive midfielder, not a striker. He does play for the England national team and is considered one of the best midfielders in the world, known for his stamina, ball-carrying ability, and tackling. From now he will also be known for his free kicks at goal. Rice joined Arsenal July 2023 from West Ham United for a club-record fee. Many questioned this decision by Spanish manager Mikel Arteta. They are not questioning it anymore.
Arteta has been the manager of Arsenal since December 2019. He has led the club to win the FA Cup (2019-20) and the FA Community Shield twice (2020 and 2023) and this year they will likely finish second in the EPL behind Liverpool. He is credited with improving Arsenal's performance and developing a strong competitive team. Arteta previously worked as an assistant coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City from 2016 to 2019, where he was part of the coaching team that won multiple titles, including the Premier League. So, he learned a lot about coaching from the best, and he is now a great coach in his own right, known for his tactical acumen and his ability to connect with and motivate his players. As a former player himself, after years in Europe, he played for Arsenal for five years, where he captained the team, and won two FA Cups and two FA Community Shields before retiring in 2016 to start a coaching career. Well he is back with Gunners and they are loving him now.
Arsenal have had 75 years to win the Champions League. They may very well get their best shot this year. Should they win in aggregate against PSG then they will face either Inter or Barcelona in the Champions League final. Former Arsenal legend Ian Wright predicts they will get through and face Barcelona again in the final. Good thing Mikel Arteta was a player on both the PSG and the Barcelona squads early in his career (Guardiola was Barcelona coach at the time). So he knows Arsenal's European competitors intimately. We will see if they use this to their advantage and rewrite the history books. They have home and away ties against PSG, one in London and one in Paris. Then one final match at Wembley stadium to decide the trophy.
Perhaps we will see more wizardry from Declan Rice and the sounds of “North London forever” will be ringing through the 90,000 person stadium by the end of the game, as they did through 60,000 strong Emirates stadium two weeks ago. Playing the final at Wembley is not exactly home field advantage for Arsenal, but it’s as close as it gets. Let us hope they get there and make more magic happen and, finally, break their Champions League curse.
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To watch:
April 29th, 2025 - UEFA Champions League Soccer Semis leg 1, Barcelona v Inter, Arsenal v PSG (watch on Paramount+ or TUDN)
May 6th, 2025 - UEFA Champions League Soccer Semis leg 2, Inter v Barcelona, PSG v Arsenal (watch on Paramount+ or TUDN)
May 17th, 2025 - EPL's FA Cup Finals, Wembley stadium, London, England (watch on EPSN+)
May 31st, 2025 - UEFA Champions League Soccer FINAL (watch on Paramount+ or TUDN)
