Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino was steadfast in his belief that the Gunners could “absolutely” win the Quadruple, setting an unprecedented target at a ridiculously early stage of the season which does little to help himself or his teammates.

Merino’s confidence had been ballooned by an eventually routine 3–0 Champions League win over Lille on Tuesday night. Despite once again laboring through the opening hour, Arsenal collected three points to make it nine wins from 10 games across all competitions thus far.

Since losing to Inter Milan at San Siro in November 2024, Arsenal have won their subsequent 14 league phase fixtures in the competition, setting the foundation for a run to the semifinals in 2025 which was followed by defeat in last summer’s final. “It’s an unbelievable run,” Merino told Sky Sports. “We know we’re making history in the competition.

“At the same time we know how difficult it is to win games. We keep a lot of value and credit in the team for what we’re doing.

“The goal is to win the Champions League, the Premier League, to win everything. That’s what the manager wants. That’s what the fans want. That’s what we as players want as well.”

Merino was pushed on the prospect of Arsenal becoming the first English club in the history of the sport to win all four major trophies in the same season. There was no backtracking. “Absolutely,” he shot back.

“This is the mentality. This is the aim. We were so, so close last season and that proved to us we are ready for it. Now it’s about details, being present and ready in the right moments. And we believe that.”

Arsenal’s Quest for the Impossible

No team has ever won England’s top flight, Europe’s premier club competition, the FA Cup and the League Cup since the latter was first introduced in 1960. However, plenty have mistakenly spoken about it.

Arsenal were guilty of this themselves as recently as last season, when William Saliba openly pined after all four pots of silver. The center back at least had the decency to wait until December before eyeing up the practically impossible. The Gunners’ quest lasted through March before a loss to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup curtly curtailed those aspirations.

Closest English Clubs to the Quadruple

Celtic have achieved the feat in Scottish soccer, piling up five trophies during a glorious 1966–67 season overseen by Jock Stein. The issue for clubs outside the British Isles is a lack of a second domestic cup—although this tends to help their national teams when players arrive in the summer unburdened by as many fixtures as their English counterparts.

Arsenal’s Illusion of Depth Will Have to Materialize to Match Merino’s Ambitions

It’s no coincidence that the only clubs to have maintained their quadruple bid through April have all come in the 21st century, with the majority playing as recently as the last five years, when the financial power was concentrated among the game’s few elite clubs to so spectacularly dwarf everyone else.

The starting XI which Davide Ancelotti named against Arsenal on Tuesday for a Lille side currently sat second in Ligue 1 was valued by FotMob at $159 million (£120 million). Arsenal’s bench stretched beyond $460 million.

All the talk surrounding the Gunners for more than a year has been the club’s supposedly unrivaled strength in depth. The collection of names assembled in north London is undoubtedly impressive and it certainly helps have a $100 million midfielder come off the bench, as Bruno Guimarães proved against Leeds United on the weekend.

Even a figure as guarded as Arteta is willing to admit as much. “The deeper the squad that we have, the better,” he offered at the start of the season. But it came with a warning. “We have to manage that.”

Arsenal underwhelmed against their financially inferior opponents under the Champions League lights, only breaking the deadlock through a single moment of brilliance from Jurriën Timber after an hour. It was only once Arteta turned to his cavalry of starters, putting the likes of a waning Viktor Gyökeres out of his misery, that the Gunners eased away from Lille.

If they are to even maintain the illusion of this fanciful quadruple dream through the spring, Arteta’s depth will have to start living up to their lofty billing.