🚨🚨🎙️ Wayne Rooney on Arsenal winning the Premier League after 22 years: an emotional speech 🎤
“This team… this team… honestly, I’m actually feeling emotional for them right now. For years people called them soft, fragile, bottlers… every season it was ‘stay humble’, ‘show some mentality’, ‘build some muscle’, ‘they’re not built for the big moments’. 😭
Well… where’s Mr. Mentality now? Where’s the man telling everyone to stay humble now? Where’s the man mocking them with a bottle. I can’t see them 👀
Because Arsenal have gone and done it. After 22 years. And they didn’t do it in an easy season either, they did it in one of the toughest Premier League campaigns I can remember. The pressure, the intensity, the competition… and they still came out on top.
If right now, you are still doubting this team then you’ve been left behind, and it’s only a matter of time you will stop doubting them.
You have to give credit where it’s due. Mikel Arteta deserves enormous praise because he rebuilt this club step by step and got people believing again.
I can already see Arsenal fans becoming the loudest people on earth for the next 20 years… and honestly? Fair enough. They’ve suffered enough. Congratulations to Arsenal Football Club.” 🏆❤️
Arsenal are Premier League champions and they thoroughly deserve to be. They’ve waited so long for this, they’ve worked so hard for this, withstood so much frustration and so many jibes. They’ve put up with 22 years of title hurt, going close, drifting back, fighting back, building the squad, building the team, building the momentum. Believing in the process, believing in Mikel Arteta. And now, to the Gunners, the glory.
So much praise is due Arteta, for gradually shaping this team, for turning them into champions. The football his team plays is not the most breath-taking Arsenal have ever produced, certainly not in the creative class of Arsene Wenger’s champions. Arsenal need to become more expansive. Arteta's artists, one day. It’s not been a great season in the league for quality but it’s certainly been good for the league to have different champions for a change.
For Arsenal, this was about getting over the line and, helped by Nicolas Jover’s honours degree in the set-piece arts from the college of cunning, they did. They also got away with plenty of grappling in getting their grip on the title trophy. Manchester City, a more attractive side, pushed them close but Arsenal showed their resilience. One-nil to the mindset.
And glory for Declan Rice, the best player in the Premier League, the player who defined the destiny of the title with his driving runs, leadership without needing the armband, shielding the back-four, covering back, and also starting attacks from the back. Rice received this reporter's vote for FWA Footballer of the Year, and last night's immense display against Burnley showed why. This title win showed why. The game is about glory.
Glory, too, for Arsenal’s strong spine of David Raya, Gabriel, Rice and Viktor Gyokeres. Glory for Hale End, producing so much talent, not least the wonderful Bukayo Saka. And credit to the Arsenal board who backed Arteta when so many questioned him. Backed him with words of support. Backed him with players, and with time and patience.
And, finally, joy to the fans. When Arteta called on them to greet the coach, to raise the roof, to carry the team home, they delivered. A party 22 years in the making has now broken out, Arsenal fans taking to the streets around the Emirates to celebrate. They are worthy champions. #AFC