Arsenal goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga must wait to learn if he will get a Premier League winners’ medal this weekend.
The Gunners’ 22-year wait for a league title came to an end on Tuesday night as they were crowned champions with a game to spare.
Manchester City needed a win against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium with a 1-1 draw sending the trophy to north London.
The Arsenal squad and staff got the party started inside the club’s training facilities but had to make do with a cardboard cutout of the trophy for now.
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They will get their hands on the real thing after their final game of the season away to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Given Arsenal have already played their last home game of the season, the 1-0 win over Burnley on Monday, Selhurst Park will be the setting for the official inauguration.
Club captain Martin Odegaard will be presented with the trophy before medals are dished out to players who have made a minimum of five league appearances this season, with Kepa not meeting that criteria.
The former Chelsea goalkeeper joined Arsenal last summer, serving as David Raya’s understudy. While he did start every FA Cup and Carabao Cup game, the Spaniard sat on the bench in every Premier League game this season without making a single appearance.
Arsenal will receive 40 medals in total.
The Premier League Handbook says medals will be ‘presented by the Club to its Manager and to such of its Players and Officials as it thinks fit provided that any Player who has entered the field of play in a minimum of five of its League Matches that Season shall receive from the Club a commemorative medal.
‘Additional medals may only be presented with the consent of the Board which shall only be given if the total number of Players who have entered the field of play that Season in a minimum of five of the Club’s League Matches exceeds 39.’
Arsenal at present have 24 players who have played more than five times for the club this season. While Arteta could choose to start Kepa against Palace on Sunday, he will not meet that threshold.
Arsenal will however have a further 16 medals to distribute and will hope to get consent from the Premier League to award Kepa with one.
Christian Norgaard, a bit-part player at Arsenal following his summer move from Brentford, will make that cut-off having made six appearances off the bench this season.
Ethan Nwaneri, who joined Marseille on loan in January, will also be eligible, also making six appearances.