Arsenal's Quadruple Dreams: A Ranking of the Double, Triple, and Quadruple Feats That Actually Came Off

January arrives like clockwork, and with it comes the annual ritual: some ambitious outfit will fancy their chances at a quadruple, only to limp away with something dreadfully ordinary like the Premier League and Champions League tucked under their arm. The horror.

The reason no English club has ever managed the full complement—Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup—is straightforward: it's brutally, almost impossibly hard. Yet Arsenal find themselves genuinely positioned to have a go. Top of the league, top of the European table, and odds-on in all four competitions. It might actually happen. Except, of course, it won't. Because it never does.

Still, the question lingers: which quadruples that have been won represent the best achievements? We've cast our net across Europe's elite five leagues, though we've regrettably had to draw a line somewhere—Celtic's 1966/67 quintuple would've opened a Pandora's box leading all the way to Linfield's 1961/62 septuple, and sanity demanded we stop the bleeding.

12) Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup (Barcelona 2011/12)

No league title? No Champions League? You're having a laugh. This isn't a quadruple; it's a con job dressed up in fancy packaging.

11) La Liga, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Supercopa de Espana (Barcelona 2009/10)

Pep Guardiola's Barcelona were genuinely magnificent, losing just once all season and holding off Real Madrid by three points in a genuine scrap. Yet the problem persists: any trophy wearing the word 'Super' in its name is fundamentally dodgy. Both the UEFA and Spanish variants were two-team affairs (the Spanish played over two legs, mind), hardly marquee competitions. The Club World Cup, meanwhile, amounted to little more than the old Intercontinental Cup between European and South American champions. Barca started chasing six trophies but stumbled to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey last 16 and got schooled by Jose Mourinho's Inter in the Champions League semis.

10) Bundesliga, DFL-Supercup, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup (Bayern Munich 2020/21)

There's something rather amusing about a club being able to shrug and say: "This is the worst quadruple we've ever won." The implications are rather rosy.

9) Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup (Bayern Munich 2013/14)

The second-worst of Bayern's haul. They'd opened these trophy doors a year earlier and happily walked through them. Guangzhou Evergrande fell in the Club World Cup; penalties did the trick against Chelsea in the Super Cup as a bit of payback for 2012. But Real Madrid demolished them in the Champions League semis, and they'd already lost the DFB-Supercup to Dortmund at the campaign's start.

8) Premier League, FIFA Club World Cup, Football League Cup, FA Community Shield (Manchester United 2008/09)

Strange how this gets far less airtime than United's 1999 treble, isn't it? Four is objectively more than three. Beating Gamba Osaka and Quito for Club World Cup glory, then edging Portsmouth on penalties for the Community Shield—hardly shabby. Yet somehow it lives in the shadow of that Barcelona night.

7) Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophee des Champions (Paris St Germain 2014/15, 2015/16, 2017/18, 2019/20)

PSG managed this particular combination four times, which does earn them some credit for consistency. Three of the four are genuine competitions with multiple entrants and matches. The Trophee des Champions sounds more impressive than 'Community Shield' but amounts to the same thing—a fancy friendly between league and cup winners. PSG won it so often they essentially monopolised the League Cup before it got abolished entirely. This is a quadruple built on a domestic treble, so less tinpot than most, though the absence of European glory does cost points.

6) La Liga, Copa del Rey, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup (Barcelona 2015/16)

A proper domestic double forms the backbone here. Barcelona recovered from an April wobble to win their last five league matches by an absurd 24-0 aggregate, nipping Real Madrid by a single point. They saw off Sevilla in the Copa del Rey final after extra time, but then descended into tinpot territory: Athletic Bilbao offered token resistance in the Supercopa, while Guangzhou Evergrande and River Plate were dispatched without fuss in the Club World Cup. The Champions League ended against Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals.

5) Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Supercopa de Espana (Real Madrid 2017/18)

Another Champions League for Real Madrid—lovely for them, dreadful for Loris Karius. Everything else? Filler. The Supercopa was against Barcelona but still essentially a two-legged friendly. Al-Jazira and Gremio went down in the Club World Cup; Manchester United fell to the Super Cup. Real finished second to Tottenham in their Champions League group and third in La Liga. Absolute frauds, really.

4) Premier League, FA Cup, EFL Cup, FA Community Shield (Manchester City 2018/19)

This one deserves celebration, if only for what it reveals about the entire quadruple obsession. It's like the razor blade wars—Gillette and Wilkinson Sword kept adding blades for the sake of it. The Mach 3 was plenty. Here, City completed an unprecedented English domestic treble after Champions League hopes collided with Spurs' chaotic energy, but nobody particularly cared. Part of that was City fatigue; part was that quadruple fever had rendered trebles boring. Nonsensical, really. Add the Community Shield and you've got a quadruple featuring all three proper domestic prizes for the first time in English history. You can't fault them for losing to Spurs with Fernando Llorente in his prime.

3) La Liga, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup (Real Madrid 2016/17)

This would be challenging for top spot were it not for a careless Copa del Rey quarterfinal exit to Celta Vigo. The league title came after a proper battle with Barcelona, while a messy Champions League group stage—three draws, finishing second to Dortmund—gave way to a dominant knockout run. Napoli and Bayern fell home and away in the last 16 and quarters; Atletico Madrid's 2-1 second-leg loss in the semis was rendered academic by a 3-0 first-leg advantage. Juventus got a 4-1 hammering in the final at Cardiff. Standard Real Madrid Champions League business. The Super Cup and Club World Cup were wrapped up in formalities, though extra time was needed against both Sevilla and Kashima Antlers. The Antlers, only there as J-League hosts, remarkably reached the final after beating Auckland City, Mamelodi Sundowns, and Atletico Nacional—the Copa Libertadores champions—en route, even benefiting from the first VAR penalty ever awarded.

2) Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Champions League, Trophee des Champions (Paris St Germain 2024/25)

Here's a spicy take: winning the Champions League is actually better than winning the French League Cup. Revolutionary stuff.

PSG's season finally delivered that elusive first major European trophy alongside the customary domestic silverware. Yet we're genuinely miffed the abolition of the League Cup prevented a proper quadruple. Conversely, we're relieved they didn't win the summer Club World Cup, because deciding which season it belonged to would've been a nightmare. Within the 2024/25 calendar, this represents about as good as it gets without the League Cup—a domestic double plus the big European prize and the Trophee des Champions. Intriguingly, with the Trophee des Champions, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Intercontinental Cup already bagged, and both Ligue 1 and Champions League still alive, a tinpot quintuple remains mathematically possible.

1) Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, Champions League, DFL-Supercup (Bayern Munich 2012/13)

Germany lacks a League Cup equivalent, making this essentially as clean as any quadruple can realistically be. Bayern won all three major trophies in style: a preposterous 25-point Bundesliga margin, their six DFB-Pokal matches won by a combined 20-2 aggregate. Arsenal gave them genuine scares in the Champions League last 16 after a 3-1 home win appeared decisive, only for the Gunners to win 2-0 in Munich. Bayern then brushed aside Juventus and Barcelona—11 goals, zero conceded—before outlasting Jurgen Klopp's Dortmund at Wembley. A side that lost just once to a German opponent all season (2-1 to Bayer Leverkusen in October) would almost certainly have won a German League Cup had one existed.