The 2010s weren’t too bad a time to be an Arsenal fan, in all fairness, with the Gunners accumulating six major honours, although half of those would be deemed not so by some fans.
The Gunners sealed three FA Cups and the same number of Community Shields throughout the decade, while mounting a couple of unsuccessful title charges, such as during the 2013/14 and 2015/16 campaigns. They made up for that last year by claiming the Premiership for the first time in 22 years.
The Gunners also had four managers during the period: Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery, Freddie Ljungberg and our current main man, Mikel Arteta.
Two League Cup finals were lost to Birmingham City and Manchester City in 2012 and 2018, as well as one Europa League downfall versus London rivals Chelsea in 2019, who defeated us 4-1 embarrassingly.
I myself was only starting to adopt the Arsenal way, getting into the Gunners in 2013, not long before our first successful season of the decade.
Arsenal finally end the trophy drought
The 2013/14 season saw Wenger’s side battle for the Premier League title up until February, when they were thrashed 5-1 by Liverpool at Anfield. Despite showing great league form, we were trounced 6-3 earlier on by the Citizens away and later 6-0 by Chelsea.
However, come May, Arsenal won their first piece of silverware for nine years when Hull City were eventually beaten 3-2 in extra time.
The Gunners jaw-droppingly went 2-0 down to the Tigers within the space of only eight minutes. Over the next 112 minutes, Arsenal fought back to win 3-2 in extra time thanks to a pivotal close-range strike from Aaron Ramsey, who saved the Arsenal faithful’s day.
Within a couple of months, the North Londoners faced Manchester City in the Community Shield, who they would ultimately sink 3-0 at Wembley following efforts from Santi Cazorla, Ramsey again and Olivier Giroud, all by the hour mark.
Back-to-back FA Cups
The next year saw the FA Cup lifted for the second time in a row, something Arsenal had only done once before during the 2002/03 campaign, when Saints were marginally beaten 1-0.
Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa, who had revived themselves in the league, were shockingly swept aside 4-0, with strikes from Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud.
In August 2015, Chelsea were our opponents in the Community Shield and were just about beaten 1-0 via a cracking early Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain thunderbolt, registering Wenger’s only win against Jose Mourinho during his two spells at the Blues.
The title challenge that got away
The 2015/16 campaign saw Arsenal stay on the tails of eventual Premier League winners Leicester City, who won it against the odds.
At one point Arsenal led before eventually dropping off and finishing ten points behind the Foxes. However, they were the only side throughout the season to defeat the champions on both occasions, home and away, 2-1 and 5-2.
On 27th May 2017, Arsenal found themselves in their third FA Cup final in four seasons – not a bad record in itself – versus Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea, who were aiming to achieve the double after winning their last Premier League title to date.
Arsenal knew just a thing or two about ruining that particular aim.
Within four minutes, Sanchez took the Blues by surprise with an early opener from inside the box, and with 14 minutes to go until full-time, it looked as if Arsenal were on their way to victory.
However, for three minutes they stumbled upon a brief obstacle when Diego Costa fired in a devastating equaliser, forcing Ramsey to pick up the pieces once again in the Cup with a diving header to seal the trophy 2-1.
The occasion saw Wenger become the most successful manager in the competition to date, lifting it seven times impressively.
Another Wembley memory
The Gunners had yet again booked themselves a place in the Community Shield against Chelsea for a second time in three years.
I myself attended the game along with thousands of others and can remember looking down just after half-time and witnessing Victor Moses hand the Blues the lead, annoyingly.
With eight minutes to go, Kolasinac slammed in the goal which forced the match to penalties following the unique ABBA system, with the first team taking one and then the second team taking two – something we haven’t seen demonstrated many times since.
Petr Cech denied his old side, who he left for £10 million in 2014, as Arsenal won 4-1 on penalties, which also saw Blues keeper Thibaut Courtois miss in the shootout.
Wenger’s final years and European heartbreak
After struggling for the title during the 2017/18 campaign, the Gunners reached the League Cup final, having lost 2-1 to Birmingham City six years earlier.
In a show of conviction, Pep Guardiola’s Citizens threw a party after comfortably easing to a 3-0 win over Wenger’s side.
With Emery now in charge in 2019 following Wenger’s 22-year reign at Arsenal, we appeared in our first European final in 14 years since losing the 2006 Champions League final to Barcelona 2-1.
Arsenal really struggled for some reason versus Chelsea, who got their revenge over us in the Europa League final, shredding us to pieces with four goals scored in 23 minutes.
Former Gunner Giroud opened the scoring inside the 49th minute, which was certainly painful to watch. Alex Iwobi was Arsenal’s only goalscorer during the game, finding the back of the net inside the 69th minute, but by that stage the game was over.
In the final campaign of the decade, Arsenal saw Emery, Ljungberg and Arteta all manage the most successful team in London.
What are your strongest memories of Arsenal during the 2010s? Which trophy win, player or individual moment stands out most when you look back on the decade? Let us know in the comments below.
Liam Harding
Liam Harding has recently published his new book, The Harding-Drake Line: From Highbury Glory to Emirates Success Story, exploring his family connection to Arsenal legend Ted Drake, his campaign to preserve Drake’s legacy and his own life as a Gooner. Available to order on Amazon.
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From 1-0 to the Gunners to 0-6,3-6,2-8, 1-5, 3-5 , whipping boys of the UCL, etc. etc, I felt i was watching a 11 man tennis match sometimes, Well, need I say more? Those FA cup wins will never erase those haunting memories, may be the EPL or UCL would, but we had to be content with the 4th place trophy and actually believe we won (in addition to the Emirates Cup!)
My best memory of 2010s was on Oct5, 2014 when Mr. Wenger shoved down an arrogant Jose Mou. That was classic and will go down as my 3 best Mr Wenger moments, the other 2 – him lifting the EPL jug.
😂
The Hull cup final sticks in my mind. We went 2-0 down in the first 8 minutes with two of Hulls Centre backs scoring.
But they could so easily have gone 3-0 up through their third Centre back, but thankfully it didn’t go in.
Then the Spanish magician named Cazorla decided enough was enough and banged in a beauty of a free kick, and the come back was on. What a player Cazorla was, he could play his way out of a phone box😂.
And after Koscielny equalized, it went to extra time. And a lovely back heel from Giroud fell into the path of Ramsey who rifled it into the top right hand corner and the celebrations could begin.
Ramsey had his detractors, but something that can never be taken away from him is the fact that he scored two FA Cup winning goals for us.
Oh wouldn’t it be nice to win the FA Cup again. Here’s hoping. 🤞
thought we gradually declined in our stature during this period
Imo our greatest manager to date or on par with HC. And I know debate was raised on yesterday article by Dan on MA or AW but it was a frustrating period for us. Considered a domestic cup team rather then a league or UCL contenders. Mediocre players coming in due to financial restraints or stubbornness
Summed up with MA final season or near the end of his reign where we went down to 10 men early against Everton. Goal down to them and then we start to play and come back and win. Hoped the team above us lose and we get in to the UCL
We win , they won ..maybe it was the spuds. And we end up 5th
Disappointing summer
Season starts with high expectation and the cycle starts again
That how I felt from the mid 10s to early 20s
Onwards and upwards
Great cup wins