Sport
The story to glory, A 22 year wait
Arsenal won the 2025/26 Premier League, but not in the way many people might think. Looking at the data, the title was built on a defence that conceded just 27 goals all season — comfortably the best record in the league. Even a late…
I was obviously elated for Arsenal to finally lift the 2025/26 Premier League trophy. This post started with a simple question: Why?
There are plenty of football pundit answers. Tactics. Squad depth. Big moments. Late-season nerve.
But, from a data perspective I left the analysis to my ChatGPT ‘charting template prompt’ to see what it pulled out from a curated dataset. Together we rendered three charts to tell “the story to glory”.
The defence was key
Arsenal conceded just 27 goals across the season. That is 0.71 goals per game.
Manchester City were next best with 35 conceded, which is already eight more than Arsenal. After that, the gap opens quickly.
Brighton, the third-best defence in this cut, conceded 46. That means Arsenal were not just a little better defensively. They were operating in a different band entirely.
It is not the loudest way to win a title, but over 38 games it is a pretty convincing one.
How Arsenal handled the top 10 teams was more complicated
Against the teams that finished second to tenth, Arsenal were not perfect. They took only one point from Manchester City and one from Liverpool.
But they did enough elsewhere. Six points from Brighton. Four from Sunderland, Brentford and Chelsea. Three from Manchester United, Aston Villa and Bournemouth.
That feels important. Arsenal did not need to dominate every big opponent. They needed to keep collecting points across the season, and their defensive base gave them room to do exactly that.
Even April couldn’t stop them
By Matchweek 31, Arsenal had reached 70 points.
Then came the wobble 😳. Back-to-back defeats against Bournemouth and Manchester City left them stuck on 70 and briefly made things interesting.
But the collapse never came 😅.
Arsenal won five of their final six matches, taking 15 points from the last 18 available, and finished on 85 points.
That is probably the bit I like most about this story. The late wobble was real, but it was not enough to undo the work already done.
TL;DR
Arsenal’s title was built on defence. They conceded just 27 goals, eight fewer than Manchester City and way clear of the rest. Their top-half record was mixed, but good enough. And when April briefly threatened to turn into a wobble, five wins from the final six made sure it stayed as just that: a wobble.
👋🏻
Adam
#Coffeetableviz – simple charts, clear stories
Premier League 2025/26 results.
Premier League.com – Arsenal end 22-year wait for Premier League title
First published on the original coffeetableviz WordPress site.