Inside Arsenal's title celebrations: A 5am Emirates stroll, Saka's sass and lots of bottle

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From the gathering at the club’s training ground in St Albans on Tuesday evening, to a 5am stroll outside the Emirates Stadium once the crowds had died down, Arsenal’s players were finally free to release their emotions and enjoy the moment. The winning moment itself was about the collective and, to fully appreciate that, players and non-playing staff congregated at the club’s training ground. Arteta has developed a reputation for innovative thinking during his six years in charge and one of his ideas involved having a blacked-out Premier League trophy framed on a wall at the training ground. This was installed seasons ago, the thinking being that the trophy would remain blacked out until Arsenal won the title. The players would walk past the colourless trophy every day. It has been a source of motivation to get over the line, and one of the moments of the night that they were crowned champions came in front of that very wall. “Light that up!” came the voice of Bukayo Saka as Jurrien Timber filmed on his phone. “Let me tell you something, 22 years they were laughing and joking. They’re not laughing anymore. It’s going to be shining bright!” A post shared by Jurrien Timber (@jurrientimber) Some Arsenal fans watching were taken aback by how bold Saka came across. After breaking through as their ‘Starboy’, the image can be hard to shake, but that edge has been more visible in recent seasons. This was his time to finally let go. In another post, he acted as Myles Lewis-Skelly’s hype-man, filming the 19-year-old as he clutched champagne and joked: “They called us bottlers, and now we’re holding the bottles.” It is understandable for academy graduates, who have been through this emotional journey with Arsenal, to feel the urge to clap back after years of external noise, but new arrivals getting involved made the scenes all the sweeter. Piero Hincapie had spent most of the day fighting off jokes from team-mates — Gabriel,  in particular — and the wider football community after the gaffe with his shorts against Burnley. Even so, as the full time whistle blew on Manchester City’s title hopes he was ready to pretend to pour his Arsenal-branded bottle into his mouth — a clear dig at that City fan who went viral for his mockery of the north Londoners in early April. The bottle also popped up in an Instagram from Eberechi Eze. We did it, together. pic.twitter.com/wQDp02LvLd — Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 19, 2026 The bottle theme blended nicely with another that stretched into the morning: Eze’s Instagram stories. The first post-training ground celebration was a photo of Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard with his head back, eyes closed, enjoying an Arsenal-branded bottle of water at 3am. By the time the sun was rising, Eze, Timber, Saka and Declan Rice had all made it to the Emirates Stadium. Eze snapped a quick selfie with a ‘shhh’ gesture while walking around the south side of the stadium, and were soon spotted by supporters who had not yet left N5. More fans attempted to take selfies and videos as these players made their way past the Thierry Henry statue and down the stairs towards the front of the stadium. They had no issue with the requests, with Rice even calling a bunch over to take a group photo on his own phone. These would have been a select few of thousands, if not millions, of people to complete an all-nighter, but one in particular will have two great reasons to remember the last 24 hours: not only did Riccardo Calafiori celebrate becoming a Premier League winner, it was also his 24th birthday. A post shared by Riccardo Calafiori (@richycala) Those smaller subplots are what really make these celebrations, though. During a run of seven league games without a win in late 2020, Saka posted this on X: You deserve more Arsenal fans 💔 pic.twitter.com/oWrcjchIZd — Bukayo Saka (@BukayoSaka87) December 16, 2020 Just days before, Gabriel had expressed a similar sentiment: sorry fans, we will get out of this situation. we need you! — Gabriel Magalhaes (@biel_m04) December 13, 2020 It was a poignant moment, therefore, when the two players shared an embrace to mark Arsenal’s triumph. Bukayo. Big Gabi. Champions. pic.twitter.com/3OKWSqPPdk — Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 19, 2026 Players who helped kick-start this project at various points but may not still be at Arsenal deserve some recognition. Emile Smith Rowe, Kieran Tierney, Eddie Nketiah, Alexandre Lacazette, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsdale and Oleksandr Zinchenko all helped elevate this team in their own ways. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang congratulated the young man he nick-named ‘Lil Chilli’ (Saka) on Instagram, and it was a pleasant surprise to see Jorginho FaceTiming Saka, Timber and Gabriel Jesus as they were leaving the training ground just before midnight, high-fiving fans who had waited outside as they did so. Back at the stadium, academy manager Per Mertesacker, who is leaving the club at the end of this season, was spotted in the club level concourse. He gave them a wave as they sung his ‘Big F****** German’ chant and then mimicked their lifts of inflatable Premier League trophies. Club legend Ian Wright was down at street level, with a David Rocastle shirt on amongst all the unbridled joy and chaos. Once he had got through the mosh pits in front of the club shop, he told Stan Sport Football: “I can’t explain what it means. Doing it in ’98 was unbelievable but experiencing it as a fan with everything that has gone on in the last three years, and to finally do it, what can I say? “Mikel (has been) unbelievable. (It is) almost visionary what he done. He turned everything around. Got the owners and fans onside. Got players out, got players in. Stuck to his principles. It’s amazing. And this club deserves it. The fans deserve it all around the world. We deserve this, man.” Any footage of Arteta himself celebrating has not surfaced yet, but his right-hand man Andrea Berta, Arsenal’s sporting director, could be seen crowd surfing over the players and spraying bottles of champagne at the top table in their viewing room at the training ground. There was a rendition of Queen’s We Are the Champions shortly after it was made official that Arsenal had won the league, but a different sing-along may have meant more. This is a World Cup year, after all, and with most of this squad born in the late 90s and early 2000s, one of their first World Cups would have been South Africa in 2010. That tournament had two main songs. Shakira’s Waka Waka is already a favourite as it has been repurposed in honour of Kai Havertz, but for people growing up at that time, Wavin’ Flag by K’naan was the more heavy-hitting anthem. It got a suitably rousing rendition from the squad at the training ground. A post shared by Arsenal (@arsenal) There are still two matches to play before these players will be waving their respective national team flags, though. Celebrations will no doubt continue through Wednesday before focus switches to what will now be a stress-free trip to Selhurst Park and then the Champions League final the week after. Whatever happens in Budapest, this will just be the start of the celebrations. Arsenal have their parade to look forward to on May 31: given the scenes at the Emirates last night, it promises to be some occasion. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms