After Review: The 25-26 Arsenal Season by Poorly Drawn Arsenal

I don’t often talk about zines on this website but honestly, the quality and size of this terrific perfect-bound book firmly qualify it for review (plus it has more words than plenty of other books I’ve discussed here, lol.)

As regular readers will know, I’m a massive Arsenal fan, having unexpectedly fallen in love with the sport and the team and its style of play as they destroyed Manchester United in 1997, to the chagrin of my Red Devil brother. It’s been a glorious if often rocky road since then, with me often exasperatedly needing to remind fellow fans that yes, the Community Shield counts as a trophy (even if, admittedly, my attempts at claiming that the Tridentity Cup also counted were primarily facetious on my part.) As I’ve moved between cities and countries, through different life situations and relationships, my love for the Arsenal has always been one of the most incontrovertible parts of my character. This is very much helped by the fact that my club has held to our own shared values of respecting fairness, living within our means and promoting inclusivity. It hasn’t always behaved impeccably, but whomst among us is free of flaw? What’s important is that the club has done and continues to do its best, again reflecting my own growth through these turbulent and increasingly connected (for better or worse) times.

Anyway, through our many ups and downs, I have remained a cheerfully steadfast Gooner who, like my kids’ future stepdad Declan Rice, knows that it’s not done till it’s done. That’s the nature of sports (and life) after all: you do your best, process what happened then go again. For twenty-two long years, however, it seemed that the pinnacle of the most competitive and arguably most entertaining league in the world — the greatest objective measure of success in sports, or at least this sport as decided by common consensus — was out of our grasp. We came in second too many times, and slid all the way down to eighth not once but twice. And then somehow, in this latest season, we won the lot.

Poorly Drawn Arsenal has been one of our most consistent and relatable chroniclers in the modern era. I’ve been a fan of his since pretty early in his career and own quite a lot of his merch. I’ve followed him across various social media platforms and was thrilled to get the chance to meet him in person. When he announced that he was collecting some of his best drawings from the 2025-2026 Championship season into a physical volume, I immediately threw money down for the pre-order. Every t-shirt and mug and sticker I’ve gotten of his has been of incredibly high quality, so I thought I knew what to expect from this “zine.” I was wrong. This book is even better than anything I could have imagined.

At about 8.5″ square, the book was certainly bigger than I expected. The glossy paper is perfect for the dynamic color palette that PDA typically uses for his cartoon-style illustrations of the season’s key moments. And oh, the faintly vanilla tangerine smell of the ink and paper! Which I may or may not have discovered while getting up close and personal with this iconic depiction (at right) of my kids’ future stepdad Declan Rice letting me know that he was thinking of me during the victory against Bournemouth, teehee! This scent is, ofc, fading with exposure to air but I always love when I encounter it in freshly printed products.

As for the illustrations themselves, PDA selected over 60 of his cartoons from the season, leading readers on an emotional journey from our very first match, through new signings, wins, draws and iconic celebrations. I had a lot of feelings over seeing how important Gabriel Martinelli was to our triumphs, and am still sad that we did him so dirty in forcing him to go to such an inferior league while at the height of his abilities. I also felt a keen sense of sympathy at the author’s depiction of his own need to get away from the football, after the late season defeat to Manchester City put a serious damper on our hopes of finally winning the league again. I didn’t feel the same way at the time but I know plenty of people who did, people who needed this reminder to not let other people playing football completely dominate their mood. And we did eventually and fortunately overcome the challenges in our collective path, allowing for the birth of this terrific commemorative volume.

In all honesty, I don’t know if you’d appreciate this book if you’re not an Arsenal fan. But if you call yourself a Gooner*, then you absolutely need to own a copy. I suppose that might be a little difficult atm, as the first print run is over but hey, if you sign up for PDA’s newsletter and let him know you’re interested, I’m sure a second could be on the horizon!

* said with big “Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks” energy here.

After Review: The 25-26 Arsenal Season by Poorly Drawn Arsenal was published September 2026 and may be available at Poorly Drawn Arsenal.