The last time Arsenal defended the Premier League title, they were labelled enemies of the English game. Arsène Wenger's refusal to prioritise home-grown talent led to the club setting a record in February 2005, when they became the first team in English football history to field an entire squad without an English player.
It was, inevitably, the source of much anger. Former midfielder Paul Merson, who had left Arsenal eight years earlier, said it was a joke. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Players' Football Association, described it as worrying. Across the country, Arsenal and Wenger were accused of betraying English tradition and undermining the national team.
More than two decades later, Arsenal find themselves in the same position as Premier League champions – but with an entirely different approach to English talent. A deliberate recruitment strategy, curated over multiple windows, has resulted in Mikel Arteta's current squad being the most English squad Arsenal have had in 25 years.
The £55m signing of Ezri Konsa , who could make his Arsenal debut against former club Aston Villa on Monday night, means that five current Arsenal players represented England at the World Cup. That is the most of any club. The four they had in North America was their highest number of players in an England squad at a major tournament, level with the 2002 World Cup.
On the opening weekend of the Premier League, only Everton fielded more Englishmen (eight) than Arsenal (six).
The five Arsenal players who travelled to North America are Konsa, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke. But Arsenal's English core goes beyond this quintet, as Arteta's squad also contains capped England internationals Ben White and Myles Lewis-Skelly, and youth internationals Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and Marli Salmon.
The Anglification of Arsenal has not come cheap: the combined cost of Konsa, Eze, Madueke, Rice and White was more than £300m. Arsenal, evidently, believe these players to be worth the so-called "English premium".
Why have they been so enthusiastic about English talent? The Premier League's regulation, which states that a squad can have no more than 17 non-homegrown players, is one obvious reason. Arteta also places huge value on players who already know the rigours of English football and the demands of the Premier League.
Far more important, though, is Arteta's obsession with the concept of "connection". This is one of the Arsenal manager's favourite words and he has spent his entire tenure at the club attempting to create the strongest possible bond between the players, staff and supporters. In packing the squad full of English players (all of whom, apart from White, are Londoners) he has engineered a camaraderie and collective spirit that would have been much harder to achieve with a more diverse squad.
Rice (from left), Miles Lewis-Skelly, Madueke, Eze and midfielder Theo Julienne all hail from London - Stuart MacFarlane/Getty Images
The England players at Arsenal are genuinely close friends. When Arsenal were looking to buy another winger last summer, for example, both Rice and Saka provided glowing reviews of Madueke's character and ability. Their recommendations are a major reason why Arsenal signed him from Chelsea.
During Villa's victory parade after winning the Europa League last season, Konsa video-called Saka from the open-top bus. And when Konsa was about to sign for Arsenal, he received calls and messages from Madueke, who then wrote his "brother" a welcome letter upon his arrival. "I don't think I have ever been this excited to have a new team-mate," Madueke said.
As Konsa arrived at Arsenal on his first day, he was greeted by Eze, who had stayed behind after training to give his friend a hug. The pair, both the same age and from the same part of London, have been close for many years.
There are similar relationships between Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri, who have been best friends since they were six, and also between Dowman and Salmon.
These Englishmen, and the academy graduates especially, undoubtedly help the team to generate a stronger connection with the supporters. Which match-going Arsenal fan would not be attracted to the idea of a group of Londoners representing them on the pitch? The fans' adoration for the likes of Saka, Rice and Eze is, to some extent, a result of these players being relatable. Indeed, when Arsenal considered whether to smash their transfer record to sign Rice in 2023, his status as a highly popular English player was one of the decisive considerations.
There were moments last season when it seemed that Arsenal's plan to lean into these friendships, to build the squad around a unified core, had actually been too successful. "It's the best dressing room I ever had," Arteta said at the end of last season. "Sometimes I question myself: are they too nice?"
In a separate interview, Arteta added: "It's just a joy of a group. The togetherness, the unity, the love, the respect they have towards [each other]. The connection that they have with all the staff, with the club, with the supporters. The moments that we live together, the amount of fun and enjoyment that we have together, it's special."
Of course, the Englishmen are not the only reason for this togetherness. There are different friendship groups across the squad, from the Spaniards to the South Americans to smaller groups in between. Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz, for example, are so close that Havertz was a groomsman at Odegaard's wedding. But the English core is the biggest group, and the one that Arsenal keep deliberately strengthening with their work in the transfer market.
This is not the first time since the controversy of 2005 that Arsenal have attempted to build around British talent. They famously announced new deals for Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and Carl Jenkinson in 2012, as Wenger aimed to construct a new core. But the scale, cost and success of Arteta's English operation are on an entirely different level, and they are only just getting started.
