Key events
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, it turns out, will be DJ-ing at the family party that follows the parade. “It’s even got a bouncy castle,” she says.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, yes, is taking part in the Arsenal official broadcast of the parade.
Drew Lundgren gets in touch, and he’s not yet over it: “People are fools, if PSG played in the Premier League arsenal would have beat them last night at a canter. That PSG team is soft. They had the benefit of an official who believes Arsenal foul too much. So be it.”
On the bus, a couple of the players are rubbing their eyes, so thick is the red smoke.
Mikel Merino speaks: “Very, very proud. I’m very happy to be my, with the team, to be celebrating. I think it was a really hard season with ups and downs.”
Martin Odegaard, in large shades, leads the celebrations, pumping the air as the bus speeds on. The pace is enough for the security team to keep up.
Gabriel Martinelli speaks: “It’s amazing to share this moment with them,” he says of the fans. Declan Rice reclines with the trophy, basking in the glory. Someone is singing loudly, a little off-key.
The banner, by the way, reads “These streets are our own”.
Some estimates of 800,000 on the streets, let’s see if they are correct. At Seven Sisters, Finsbury Park, there’s a huge banner being unfurled. The noise is loud, the smoke is thick. The Premier League trophy is almost invisible as Louis Dunford’s The Angel rings out. Gunnersaurus, if you’re interested, is on the third bus, with the women’s players.
David Wall gets in touch: “While I agree that Arsenal have something to celebrate today, winning the league at any time is a brilliant achievement, it seems as though they are moving on very quickly from their defeat yesterday. Perhaps that has to do with the manner of the loss and the fact that they were underdogs, that they did the best they could, etc, etc. There has been an attempt to justify Arsenal’s approach by saying that if they’d actually tried to take on PSG by attacking them, ‘going toe-to-toe’, then they would have been hammered. I think that’s garbage. Bayern Munich tried to really play against them and it was incredibly close (and could easily have gone in their favour especially if you consider that Neuer pretty much gifted PSG two goals with bad, uncharactieristic mistakes).”
There are lots of smiles among those players. An overhead shot shows fans peeling off down perpendicular streets and running to get another view of those rather fast-moving buses.
Myles Lewis-Skelly spoke to Sky before boarding the bus: “It’s disappointing because, you know, when you’re so close to a dream, a goal, and you feel slightly short, but it just, you know, as Mikel said, adds fuel to the fire, so we’ll use that for us.
“It means it means everything just to share this moment with our people. Yeah, definitely gonna see my family here is always gonna be, it’s gonna be emotional. The last, you know, couple of weeks have been incredible.
“I feel like it’s a start of a new era. And I feel like we’re ready to go out and achieve our dreams. Yeah, you know, [Arteta]’s been so supportive of me over my whole journey. So I’m just so grateful for him and, you know, everything I can, I can repay him in the trust he’s giving me. I am so grateful.”
Jesper Kallstrom – related to Kim? – gets in touch: “Let Spurs fans talk more about tactics, it’s highly amusing and fills me with a warm feeling, also consider that Arsenal were the only team to score an open play goal yesterday, against the best attack in Europe. One-dimensional eh? Stay safe, stay 17th.”
Steve Farole gets in touch: “This season’s Arsenal is a classic example that two things can be true at the same time.
“Arteta built Arsenal to compete in today’s league, matching teams’ physicality while building a defence to neutralise counter-attacking football, in a way that Guardiola and Slot failed to do. His team’s endeavor, tactical discipline, and – dare I say it – bottle were impressive. They were worthy winners of this year’s league.
“At the same time, they scored the fewest goals of any Premier League winner since Leicester in 2015-16 and leaned heavily on set pieces to generate offense. That the league is trending towards a reliance on set pieces doesn’t make that style of play any easier on the eyes. And the inability to generate offense from open play is what hampered Arsenal in the league and did so again last night (one shot between the 45th and 120th minutes).
“Arsenal have a great foundation to build on, so let’s see if Arteta can add some attacking verve to this team next season. If he can, it’s hard to see who will compete with them in the league.”
The noise level is off the scale as the buses make their way down the Holloway Road, the party bus leading the throng. The bus is going at quite a lick, faster than might be expected, quicker than you can usually drive down Holloway Road. Red smoke fills the air. No pyro, no party?
The third bus, the women’s players, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Leah Williamson, are grooving away to the music. There’s fans on rooftops. The men’s players look a little subdued at the moment, they’ve had a long day already.
Declan Rice is at the front of the bus, sipping from an Arsenal-branded cup. At the back of the bus, Christhian Mosquera is leading the dancing. The shirts each have “Champions 26” on the back.
The buses get moving
The first bus has players and manager aboard, the second has staff, the third has the women’s team. Mikel Arteta is wearing shades and gives a speech to his players and some of those in the inner circle of friends and family. There’s a mobile DJ playing music, and will broadcast the players’ words when they come. They cross the bridge, which has “This Belongs To All Of Us” written on the road.
Here we go, Fatboy Slim’s music is playing, Right Here, Right Now the fans are asked: “are you ready?” The players and manager Mikel Arteta, are all clad in Arsenal shirts, Martin Odegaard has the Premier League trophy in his hand. Stuart MacFarlane, the club snapper, is taking the pics as the players cross the Danny Fizsman bridge. The players are all wearing their medals.
Craig Fawcett joins the Spurs commentary and gets in touch. Guess all the Gunners are at the parade: “Another biased opinion from Spurs here. You’re 100% right that Arsenal deserved the title. But even the most ardent Spurs fan could watch a Wenger team and say they played good football. This Arsenal team are so one-dimensional. That’s what killed them last night. I can’t remember a single standout team goal from this season. They’re set piece bullies, deserving of their success in the same way Pulis-era Stoke were. Enjoy the parade!”
The open-top buses are beginning to fill up; there’s three at the moment.
The buses for the Arsenal team – the women’s Champions Cup success is also being celebrated – are ready, parked outside the back of the Emirates.
Some reaction from last night in Budapest.
There is another team in north London. They’re not having a good time of it, though there was succour last night. Hugh Giles gets in touch to say: “As a Tottenham fan living in north London today is a day for staying inside. Having said that, if I could have scripted yesterday I would have gone with something along the lines of what happened. The penalty shootout was pure perfection, in particular Eze’s absurd miss. And one shot in more than two hours of football put paid to any suggestion that this is somehow a “great” team.”
Perhaps even the most bitter Spurs fans would accept that Arsenal were deserved champions of England. Last night was a different story. Tough to win a game with so little possession.
Arrived back in London on Saturday from Sheffield, an hour before kick-off, and Highbury & Islington station was filled with Arsenal shirts. One fan was wearing a Nicolas Pepe shirt; perhaps that was an omen. No Yaya Sanogo replicas spotted, surely one at the parade today.
Live stream of parade available
It’s available at the top of the page, and with this link, too.
The Gunners players are getting ready at the Emirates.
The scenes in north London are far more convivial than what took place in Paris last night. Let’s hope that sustains.
Rob Draper’s read on the Arsenal title triumph is well worth a look.
“It was the perfect storm in that you had a really driven young manager, bright, well-schooled, ambitious and enthusiastic. You’ve got the money and you had a board that gave him time,” said one former senior employee at the club who was close to Arteta. “He told them it would take five years.”
All the senior Arsenal sources spoken to for this article have praised the Kroenke family and some pointed to the more active involvement of Josh Kroenke, the 46-year-old son of the patriarch Stan, as a key player at that point. “I had the impression he persuaded the board to pull the emergency cord on funding,” said one.
This is the organised parade, what happened last Tuesday was far more impromptu.
They approach via the familiar sidestreets, Gillespie Road, Benwell Road, Hornsey Road, the little shortcut past The Plimsoll pub. The night is cool and calm and still, the air rumbling with adoration and freedom, the sensation of chains being broken. As they reach the stadium, perfect strangers grip each other by the shoulders, bound by shared memory, shared trauma, a shared hymnbook. What do you think of shit? Tottenham! Thank you. That’s all right! A firework is let off, and then another. People are FaceTiming their relatives. People are getting selfies with Ian Wright. The crowd is hundreds, and then thousands, a lawless melee that in classic Arteta-ball tradition features plenty of jostling but no free-kicks awarded. Meanwhile, in the digital wilds beyond, the celebration police have laid down their truncheons and riot shields.
Here’s David Squires’ take on the 2025-26 Premier League champions.
Before the parade begins, let’s relive some of last night, and this season.
The crowds really are deep in numbers along the route, with airhorns to the fore. Upper Street is brimming over. A few fans were in Budapest last night and caught flights at 2am to be there. Many who were there will be arriving at a time when the parade is on.
The route: Holloway Road, around Seven Sisters, through Blackstock Road to Newington Green, then Essex Road before turning right at Angel station on to Upper Street. But not, note, past the Emirates, which has been cordoned off.
Preamble
If you have been in the streets of London in the last week, or even on a train travelling to London, Arsenal shirts have been everywhere. Today is when they converge once more, for the trophy parade of the Premier League. Not the Champions League trophy, of course, that remains in Paris, but the mood is one of celebration. It’s been 22 years since Gunners fans could celebrate being top of the heap in England. How many will be there? The estimates range as high as a million. That might even be an underestimate.
The open-top buses set off at 2pm.
So, join me for coverage.
