With a game still to play, Arsenal sit uncatchable at the top of the Premier League on 82 points from 37 matches, winning 25 games, drawing seven and losing five.
In isolation, that total does not sit alongside the highest title-winning points totals of the modern era. In context, it reflects a side that avoided the damaging runs which had undermined previous Arsenal title challenges.
Dictating matches
The season followed a consistent pattern. Arsenal scored enough, conceded very little and increasingly dictated the type of match being played.
Their 69 league goals represented a strong attacking return without becoming excessive. The more significant figure sat at the other end: just 26 conceded, comfortably the best defensive record in the division.
That improvement was not simply about defending lower or taking fewer risks.
Arsenal became cleaner between phases. They pressed with more control, protected central areas better and gave opponents fewer opportunities to attack open spaces. Once ahead, they looked increasingly comfortable reducing games rather than opening them further.
Raya and Saliba excel again
David Raya's season reflected that approach.
His 60 saves, 19 clean sheets and 69 per cent save rate suggest a goalkeeper in strong form, having made it three Golden Glove awards on the spin already. He's just one more off the all-time record of four held by Petr Cech and Joe Hart.
But his contribution extended beyond shot-stopping. Arsenal increasingly used him to slow the tempo, restart possession and maintain territorial control.
Ahead of him, William Saliba remained the reference point.
His 62.86 per cent tackle success rate underlines the output, but continuity mattered as much as volume. Arsenal kept their defensive structure intact for most of the season and rarely needed to compensate for instability behind the ball.
The Gunners kept 15 clean sheets and conceded just 20 goals in his 31 games.
Rice dominant in midfield
If Saliba anchored the defence, Declan Rice increasingly connected every phase.
His campaign combined six goals and eight assists with 70 tackles won, 37 interceptions and 180 possessions won. Few midfielders in the league carried that spread of responsibility.
Rice still did the work expected of an elite defensive midfielder, but Arsenal asked more from him in possession. He drove attacks forward more regularly, arrived later into dangerous positions and became an increasingly important set-piece contributor, notching five assists and four goals in his 36 appearances.
The addition of Viktor Gyokeres brought a much-needed centre-forward threat and could well be the ultimate difference to previous campaigns.
His 14 league goals addressed an issue Arsenal had managed rather than solved in previous seasons, but his contribution showed the value of a traditional-style striker in today's game, with an average of 158.79 minutes per goal and all but one of them coming from within the box.
'Set Piece FC'
The area where Arsenal separated themselves most clearly, though, was from set pieces.
Arsenal set a new Premier League record by scoring 17 goals from corners in the 2025/26 campaign, eclipsing the previous competition benchmark of 16, which was jointly held by Oldham (1992/93), West Brom (2016/17), and Arsenal themselves (2023/24).
Corners became sustained attacking phases rather than isolated moments.
In total, after 37 games, the Gunners have scored 28 goals from set pieces in the league this season.
Those numbers reflect how deliberately Arsenal approached dead-ball situations. The objective was not simply to deliver well but to manufacture favourable match-ups and maintain pressure after the first contact.
The routines themselves became more varied. Near-post traffic, back-post isolation and second-phase attacks replaced the more predictable patterns seen in earlier seasons.
Nearly a third of Arsenal's expected goals came from set plays.
For a side already controlling possession and conceding very little, that additional source of production removed pressure from open play and made narrow matches easier to manage.
Discipline became an advantage
One statistic that sat quietly underneath Arsenal's season was this: they completed the entire Premier League campaign without receiving a single red card.
Arsenal's previous title challenges had occasionally been disrupted by moments rather than performances - unnecessary suspensions, emotional decisions or matches becoming stretched after losing control. This season, there was far less of that.
The number points to a side that defended earlier, committed fewer emergency fouls and spent less time chasing games. Arsenal rarely left themselves exposed enough to require desperate interventions.
For a team built on structure and territorial control, staying at 11 players every week became another small advantage that accumulated across the season.