A VICTORY for Arsenal in today’s Champions League final against Paris St Germain in Munich would elevate this squad into the conversation among the finest England has produced and go a long way towards establishing the club as a genuine heavyweight of European football.
Coming, as it does, just a week after their Premier League triumph, a win tonight would deliver Arsenal’s first Champions League crown and place them firmly at England’s top table alongside Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham.
It would also secure a rare feat in European football – England sweeping all three of the continent’s major club competitions in the same season. Aston Villa claimed the Europa League last week, while Crystal Palace lifted the Conference League on Wednesday night.
Arsenal completing the set would mark a unique treble for the English game and underline the scale of their rise under Mikel Arteta – a defining campaign by any measure, and one that will take some beating.
Palace’s triumph, the greatest moment in the club’s history, will be tempered by the impending departure of Oliver Glasner in the off season, the architect of their win over Rayo Vallecano.
Whoever succeeds him will inherit a squad with renewed belief and a taste for European nights, and Palace will look forward to their next continental adventure with real appetite.
So too will Villa, who hardly needed the Europa League’s automatic Champions League berth, having already finished fourth behind Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.
Unai Emery will surely be backed to strengthen again as Villa prepare to test themselves at the highest level – and perhaps chase even more silverware next season.
Arsenal, Villa and Palace now stand as the season’s great English success stories, each with their own momentum, their own ambitions and their own sense of possibility.
Should Arsenal complete the treble tonight, it would not only crown their own journey but also seal a landmark year for English football as a whole. — By SHAUN ORANGE
