Arsenal's Premier League title is done, but the cleaner story is in the fine print. The club will receive 40 commemorative medals, made of silver and 2.25in (5.7cm) in diameter, while 24 players have already cleared the five-appearance mark needed to qualify automatically. The financial side is just as tidy, with the champions set for the league's biggest merit payment.
Who gets a medal at Arsenal?
The Premier League handbook says any player who has appeared in at least five league matches that season gets a commemorative medal from the club. That gives Arsenal 24 automatic recipients, including Ethan Nwaneri now on loan at Marseille. It also leaves room for discretion, because the club only has 40 medals to hand out.
That is why Kepa Arrizabalaga and Tommy Setford sit in the more awkward part of the picture. Kepa has not played in the Premier League this season and all 11 of his appearances have come in cup competitions. Setford has one FA Cup appearance and no Premier League appearances. They are not automatic winners' medal cases, even if there are still medals left to allocate.
Arsenal's title also closes a 22-year wait for a Premier League championship, and it does so with one game still to play. That matters for the club's season story, but the medal rule is the more practical detail now: Mikel and his squad know exactly who has already earned one by league appearances, and who is still dependent on the club's final decisions.
Why the money matters as well
The other immediate reward is cash. The Premier League says champions receive 20 times the basic merit payment, while second place gets 19 times. Arsenal finished first, so they get the top multiplier and the club's biggest ever Premier League cheque.
There is a broader financial backdrop too, because the title sits alongside a season that reportedly brought in more than £120m from the Champions League run. That figure is not fixed in the supplied material, so the safest reading is simple enough: this has been a very lucrative season, with the league title adding another major payout on top.
For Arsenal, the medal count is already settled in one sense, and the merit payment is settled in another. The exact split of the remaining medals can still move, but the club has 24 automatic recipients, 40 medals in total and the league's top prize payment now attached to the title.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →
