Soccer
Why Arsenal’s Champions League credentials will be clear before knockout rounds
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There will be no need to wait until spring to discover whether Arsenal are capable of winning the Champions League.
UEFA’s fixture computer has arranged a series of examinations substantial enough to establish their credentials long before the knockout rounds begin.
Mikel Arteta’s side open away to Napoli tonight before visiting Bayern Munich in October and welcoming Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid to the Emirates before Christmas. It is not quite a knockout draw masquerading as a league phase, but it is uncomfortably close.
Arsenal should not fear it. The defending Premier League champions reached last season’s final unbeaten, winning 11 of their 14 matches before drawing 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest and losing 4-3 on penalties. They conceded only six goals during the competition, while David Raya’s nine clean sheets equalled the Champions League record.
That run changed the terms of Arteta’s European project. Reaching the latter stages is no longer the target. Arsenal have been semi-finalists and runners-up in consecutive seasons, losing to PSG on both occasions. Anything short of another serious challenge would represent regression.
Napoli provide a suitably awkward opening test. A night at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona offers noise, hostility and an opponent capable of punishing any early-season uncertainty.
Massimiliano Allegri may prefer control to chaos, but his side possess enough technical quality to make Arsenal work without the ball.
Bayern away on October 21 should tell us more. Arsenal’s quarter-final elimination by the German champions in 2024 felt like a lesson in European maturity.
They return to Munich as English champions and recent Champions League finalists, no longer grateful simply to share the stage. The question is whether they can now impose themselves there.
Dortmund’s visit in November will measure Arsenal against another side comfortable with the competition’s rhythms, before Real Madrid arrive on December 9. Arsenal dismantled Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the 2025 quarter-finals, a victory that removed much of the mystique surrounding the 15-time European champions. Madrid will not require reminding.
The other four fixtures, against Lille, Slavia Prague, Real Betis and Sabah, should provide sufficient opportunity to collect the points needed for direct qualification. That matters. Finishing inside the top eight avoids February’s play-off round and preserves energy during a congested period of the domestic season.
Arsenal have started their title defence with three league wins and also beat Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield.
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Their collective relief at finally ending the club’s 22-year wait for a league title may prove significant. The burden of having to win something substantial has gone. The appetite for more should remain.
Arteta’s squad will therefore reach January with few remaining mysteries. If Arsenal can handle Naples, Munich and consecutive home assignments against Dortmund and Madrid, nobody will need to see a favourable last-16 draw to declare them contenders.
They already know they can reach the final. This league phase will show whether they are ready to win it.
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