A few underperforming seasons and all of a sudden Arsenal are no longer a huge club, that appears to be the mistaken view in some quarters.
Just look through some of the comments on this very site and you will see what I mean, it is time for a reality check and to be honest, it has been a long time coming.
What constitutes a big club?
Is it history? Well, no, otherwise Preston North End would be a big club.
Is it finances, again, no, A rich Arab Sheikh can easily come along and take a tiny club and pump in a billion, that makes them all of a sudden rich but not a big club.
Is it the fanbase? you guessed it, no, loads of clubs have huge fanbases, Sunderland, Leeds United, Celtic etc. but that does not make them huge clubs.
There are other criteria that I could throw in but all, on their own, would not constitute a big club.
In my opinion, a big club is one that combines all of the above in some form or another.
So let’s take Arsenal
Arsenal is the seventh richest club on the planet according to Forbes with a huge $2.268 Billion valuation
Arsenal is the sixth biggest supported club in the world with 63.3 million followers on social media, according to Business Insider.
In terms of history, Arsenal has been winning titles and major domestic cups for the last 90 years and have won the second-most top-flight matches in English football history.
Last season Arsenal had the second highest average attendance in England and seventh highest in Europe.
Arsenal has the history, the value and the fanbase and so on to their current status.
We are about to start one of the biggest kit deals in history with Adidas, worth £60 Million a year over five years, only four clubs worldwide have ever had bigger deals, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man Utd and Bayern Munich.
Arsenal squad is the tenth most valuable in the world, higher than the likes of Bayern Munich, Inter and AC Milan.
Finally, the much-debated transfer budget.
Yes, it is reportedly low, however this is purely the clubs decision, if they wanted to spend £300 Million this summer they easily could, they would fail FFP and incur debt but the reality is that they have chosen a self-sustaining model and have refused to spend huge amounts in one transfer window, again, purely a club decision.
I could go on but I think you can agree that by almost every single metric that you can imagine Arsenal is and will remain one of the biggest clubs on the planet.