Relax, Arsenal Fans! Your 12 Year Title Drought Isn't Actually That Bad at All

Published on: 29 November 2016

'Everything Is Awful' is perhaps how the title song of the 'Lego Movie' might have gone had it been written and produced by Arsenal fans. The Gunners have slipped away from the top of the Premier League table in recent weeks and a 12-year and counting league title drought is eating away at supporters.


It's embarrassing that Arsenal haven't been champions since 2004, they say. A slur on a great club when others have been winningmultiple titles since then.

The reality is, Arsenal are still a top club and will remain a top club even if this season is yet another without the ultimate domestic prize. As far as the drought is concerned, yes it sucks to go without the Premier League trophy for so long when in theory it is so tantalisingly close, but it could be so much worse.


Liverpool are, historically, a much bigger club than Arsenal. Five European crowns, 18 league trophies, and many other domestic cups would attest to that. And yet the Reds are on a much longer drought, 26 years and counting since 1990 when they were last the best in the land.


Since Liverpool's last title win (in a different century!), Arsenal have won four.

And it's not only Liverpool. Manchester United famously had a 26-year barren spell between league titles after the last of Sir Matt Busby's in 1967 and the first of Sir Alex Ferguson's in 1993. More than a quarter of a century without finishing top of the pile, and even dealing with a relegation during that time as well.


Arsenal fans wanted blood after the club went nine years without a major trophy of any description until FA Cup success in 2013. But that was nothing compared to Manchester City fans putting up with 35 years of nothing between a League Cup triumph in 1976 and lifting the FA Cup in 2011.


Before winning the Premier League title in such dramatic fashion in 2012, only City fans alive in 1968 were old enough to witness the last time their club were champions - 42 years and half a life-time.

For Chelsea fans, the league title delivered by Jose Mourinho in 2005 was a first since 1955, a fullhalf a century. And for Tottenham supporters, well, they're still waiting even now, 55 years on from their club's last title success. Does 12 years for Arsenal really still seem that bad?


Since the Gunners' first title success in 1931, do you know what the longest drought has been? 18 years, between 1953 and 1971 and again between 1971 and 1989. Just 18 years is the longest ever title drought in Arsenal's history, paling into insignificance compared to the rest.

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