Arsenal have been crowned Premier League champions but there are plenty of figures at Man Utd who believe they are getting closer to top spot.
Arsenal’s first league title in 22 years means five different clubs have now won the Premier League since Manchester United were last crowned champions. The question at Old Trafford is how much longer they will have to wait before getting their own moment of glory.
The drought at United will be into a 14th season next year, but there are figures inside the club who believe winning the title is now a more achievable dream than it has been for a long time.
In terms of competition, the last two seasons would bear that out. Liverpool won the league last year on 84 points and Arsenal can only reach 85 this season. Crucially, last season’s runners-up got only 74 points, while this season’s can get a maximum of 81. These are points tallies that are far more achievable than the days when Manchester City and Liverpool were hitting the high-90s.
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United have also built up momentum over the second half of this season. Since Michael Carrick was appointed, United have taken more points than any other club across 16 games. That is a decent sample size, but the lack of any distractions aside from the Premier League has clearly helped.
It does feel like there is an opportunity within the Premier League. City are about to lose their greatest-ever manager, Liverpool have the look of a club in decline, and anything could happen to Chelsea under Xabi Alonso. Credit to Arsenal for getting over the line, but they don’t look like the kind of champions who will kick on and turn next season into a one-horse race. Their style isn’t set up to run away with a season.
For their part, United have an Ineos-led target of a league title by 2028 to mark the club’s 150th anniversary. The view inside Old Trafford remains that winning the league within the next two seasons is achievable.
There are hurdles to overcome to make that a reality. The most immediate one is replacing Casemiro and making sure the recruitment successes of 2025 are repeated this summer. United have taken significant steps forward this season thanks to Senne Lammens, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, all of who have been good additions to the squad.
That will need to be repeated in 2026, especially when it comes to overhauling a midfield that now lacks quality and depth to fight on two fronts, which brings us to the next challenge. There is no doubt that a large part of United’s success this season has been built on playing just 40 games.
A return to the Champions League and a deeper run in domestic cup competitions could add 20 fixtures to the schedule, and how Carrick and his coaching staff deal with two games a week rather than one will be fascinating. They will certainly need a deeper squad to maintain a challenge at home and abroad.
But for all the worthy signs of ambition and for all that Ineos deserve some credit for showing a desire to win the biggest trophies, the reality is United are yet to come close to a title challenge since 2013. Some point to Arsenal and note how Mikel Arteta has gradually built them into a team capable of winning the league.
However, Arsenal under Arteta were starting from a much lower base than United are now under Carrick, and the truth is the Gunners have squandered good chances to win the league in two of the previous three seasons.
With a game to go, United are 14 points off top spot this season. That will be the third time in 13 years they have finished within 14 points, but they’ve never been closer than 12, which came in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s final full season in 2020/21.
Those previous campaigns serve as a warning, as well. After getting within a dozen points, United were 35 points away the following season as the wheels came off. Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival unbalanced the team, Solskjaer was sacked in November and Ralf Rangnick’s spell as interim manager was a disaster.
Then, in Erik ten Hag’s first season, United were again 14 points off the top. A year later, the gap was 31 points as Ten Hag’s attempts to develop the team tactically backfired.
Heading into 2021/22 and 2023/24, there was hope United could build on what looked like a solid platform. On both occasions, it all came crashing down. That is something they have to avoid heading into next season if Project 150 is to come to fruition. It is Arsenal celebrating this morning, but United hope it will soon be them.
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