Last season’s experience of the Champions League had been encouraging but ultimately frustrating, and had ended just as it so often did under Wenger, with an exit at the hands of Bayern Munich. This season, with a new expanded league system, there would be more games to play and it was likely that there would be fewer dead rubbers (as only eight of the original thirty two clubs would be eliminated in the group stage). Arsenal were one of the best defensive sides in the world but the worry was whether they could score key goals in tight matches and whether their squad was big enough to sustain a challenge in the Champions League as well as the Premier League.
Our first game in Europe came in a very challenging week. Atalanta had won the Europa League in the previous season and were a formidable side at home. An eccentric penalty decision (not the last we would encounter in Italy) threatened to increase the size of our task but Raya made a brilliant double save. A goalless draw represented a decent start to the new league phase.
Sandwiched between two games in the Premier League with teams who would subsequently be relegated came a very different challenge – Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League. We rose to the occasion brilliantly. Havertz headed in a cross that Donnarumma hesitated on and he then let an innocuous Saka free kick past him just before halftime. In the second half PSG huffed and puffed but Arsenal repelled them easily. It was a rivalry that was to be continued later in the season.
We next took on Shakhtar Donetsk in N5. There is always a huge degree of sympathy and compassion for any Ukrainian side in competition at the moment. Shakhtar were obdurate opponents and only went down to a 28th minute own goal by Riznyk which had significant good fortune attached to it from an Arsenal perspective. We were yet to concede a goal at home this season.
Arsenal’s league form had dipped by the time of our next European game, which was one of the most testing in the group stage at the Giuseppe Meazza against Inter Milan. This game underlined just what a formidable opponent Arsenal can be as they had by far the better of the game. An extremely fortunate penalty awarded in first half injury time for handball against Merino was converted by Calhanoglu. The second half was close to a unremitting siege of the Inter goal with great saves by Sommer and a number of goal-line clearances. It represented a very unlucky 1-0 defeat and was to be Arsenal’s only defeat in the group stage.
When Arsenal went to Lisbon in late November their position in the group league was not particularly impressive, in keeping with their form in their games so far. That was to change against Sporting. Arsenal were ahead in 6 minutes through Martinelli, and Havertz and Gabriel increased the lead before the interval. Sporting threatened briefly after the break, pulling a goal back but a Saka penalty and a Trossard goal completed a 5-1 rout. There was much interest in the form of Viktor Gyokeres, the prolific Sporting striker who is perpetually linked with Arsenal. He struggled manfully but was well marshalled by Saliba and Gabriel. As we moved towards the turn of the year we were starting to look very well-placed to qualify automatically from the group phase.
This feeling strengthened after we beat Monaco 3-0 at home with Saka scoring twice and Havertz continuing his consistent scoring streak in Europe. We were now up to third in the table with two (winnable) games to go. The first of these was at home to Dinamo Zagreb in late January. A very early Rice goal was followed by later goals from Havertz and Ødegaard. A win in our last group game against Girona in Spain would ensure that we qualified in the top 8.
When we played in Girona we rested Raya and Neto came in for his first game in goal. His performance was sufficiently eccentric to alarm Gooners everywhere. Danjuma, formerly of Tottnumb, scored with a spectacular shot (wildly against the run of play) which Neto tried to punch away while outside the penalty area. Had he connected he would have been red-carded and it could have resulted in serious ramifications for our bid for the top 8. We were ahead before halftime through a Jorginho penalty and an excellent Nwaneri finish, which enabled us to close the group stage in style. Close to the end of the game we were awarded a penalty and rather like Havertz was at Bournemouth last season, Sterling was invited to take it. He didn’t score (to nobody’s great surprise). It summed up a very lacklustre spell at Arsenal which never gave us a glimpse of the player who had lit up the Euros a few years ago. He proved a very poor loan signing. It would be unfair to classify Neto the same way but it is fair to say that nobody was keen to see him in goal in any future games! He was meant to give Raya the occasional breather but was never picked again.
We were third in the final overall group table behind Liverpool and Barcelona and this obviated the need to play two extra games to qualify for the knockout stages. We knew that when we reached the last 16 we would play PSV Eindhoven who had surprisingly eliminated Juventus. We expected the tie to be manageable but surely no Gooner expected us to smash the tie to pieces in the way that we did.
The first game in Eindhoven was expected to be difficult. As mentioned they had eliminated Juventus and we were missing Saka, Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, so expected goals to be at a premium. Timber, Nwaneri and Merino, now playing upfront, gave us an interval lead although a late first half penalty suggested a possible PSV revival. It was not to be. Ødegaard and Trossard scored in the first two minutes of the second half before Ødegaard and Calafiori rounded off a resounding 7-1 victory. There were Gooners who protested about ticket prices for the return which was inevitably a low key game. Zinchenko gave us the lead and Rice restored it after Perisic had equalised. Driouech got an excellent second for PSV in the second half but a professional job was done 9-3 on aggregate. Travelling home with a group of Gooners I watched as Real Madrid fortuitously won a penalty shootout against Atletico. The consensus was that while it was thrilling to welcome them to Ashburton Grove, their quality would be too much for a depleted Arsenal side to deal with. Then Gabriel pulled his hamstring before the first leg although Saka had returned from his long absence to face Real.
When we welcomed them for the quarter-final home leg we little expected what might follow. A full, raucous Emirates witnessed a quite momentous night. During an exciting first half we tested Courtois and went very close, Partey even being prevented from scoring by hitting Saliba on the line. If the first half was good the second was incandescent! Declan Rice produced two of the greatest moments in recent Arsenal history with two exquisite free kicks that Gooners everywhere watched on repeat for days. When Merino clipped home a third from a Lewis- Skelly cross it began to dawn on us that we had a very realistic chance of eliminating the holders. Between the two legs we were bombarded with claims that the great Real Madrid were going to pull off ‘Remontada’ in the Bernabeu – the great revival – as they had so many times before.
I found the game incredibly hard to watch but again it gradually became obvious that Arsenal were the superior side despite Saka missing an early penalty. We had a strong ref and he was not influenced by the histrionics of the Madrid players. When Saka finished a clever move to put us ahead midway through the second half the tie was effectively over despite Saliba making a very rare mistake just after we scored to enable Vinicius to score. In the last minute Merino sent Martinelli away to score to ensure that we maintained our 100% record at the Bernabeu.
PSG stood between us and the final of the Champions League. Although we had beaten PSG earlier in the competition it was obvious seeing them play Liverpool, Villa and Manchester City in the interim that they were a much stronger team now. Kvaratskelia had joined, Doue was blossoming, Vitinha was rapidly becoming a superstar and Dembele was a real handful. He illustrated this in the early minutes of the first leg turning home Kvaratskelia’s cross. For the first quarter of the game they were irresistible and we were hanging on but gradually we played our way into the game and had Merino’s headed goal not been ruled out by VAR in the early minutes of the second half we would have probably gone on to win. Donnarumma made up for his awful night in the Autumn by making some brilliant saves but at 1-0 down we were not out of it.
Our performance in the first half of the second leg was astonishing. For the first ten minutes we battered them, with Donnarumma making a number of extraordinary saves. But we trailed 1-0 at the interval because Ruiz had put PSG ahead with a fierce drive that deflected off Saliba. When Hakimi doubled that lead with another fine goal in the second half the gap was too big although Saka pulled a goal back and we continued to put PSG under extreme pressure right to the end of the tie.
Last season when we lost to Bayern in the quarter finals there was a general feeling that we lacked the big game nous to compete at the sharp end of the Champions League.
Nothing could be further from the truth this season. Finishing third in the extended group stage was an indication that we ranked alongside the very best in Europe. Huge wins in Lisbon and Eindhoven showed that we had the ability to destroy teams on their own ground and the performances against Real Madrid and PSG confirmed that we are a bona fide European powerhouse. When the knives are occasionally brandished for Arteta let it be remembered that he has orchestrated the creation of a side that will start next season’s competition as one of the favourites. That is a substantial achievement and one of the signs of the growing power that is developing at Arsenal . PSG showed in the final that they are an extraordinary team and we did not look out of place against them. Their performance in the Final showed the chasm between them and the teams that played that ghastly Europa League Final.
The biggest challenge is navigating the Champions League and the Premier League together. We are not in a position to do what Postecoglou claimed Spurs did when their league form went to pot because expectations at Arsenal are understandably high. We have proved ourselves a European superpower this season and any drop from those standards will be hard to accept. Certainly we have to acquire five or six first-team standard players that we can rotate to prevent the fatigue and inexperience that held us back this season, although we made a magnificent fist of our European campaign this year. The memories from the two Madrid games will stay with supporters for the rest of their lives. Very few sides rivalled the quality and incisiveness that we showed against Sporting and PSV, and our first game with PSG underlined how much more mature we were as we locked their star- studded team out of the game.
We have made a gigantic leap in the quality and resilience of our play and our European exploits underline this better than anything else. Two seasons ago Sporting eliminated us from the Europa League. This season we destroyed them in Lisbon a matter of weeks after they had pulverised C130y. But teambuilding is a relentless business and we must ensure that our squad enables us to take a quantum leap to potential glory in Europe next season.
A third bravo, TTG. Another immaculately recalled campaign, and nothing to disagree with in your analysis. As you say, getting to where we are in Europe is an achievement, but the challenge will be staying there and taking the final step.
TTG,
Thanks for an enjoyable romp through an enjoyable CL campaign. I think the final showed that ourselves and PSG were the best two sides in the competition and the game against them could have gone either way. Could of, should of, would of sums it up really and without intending it as a criticism I think it was a very good chance to win our first CL missed this season.
If Zubimendi is really on board then I would be fine with 3 more outfield players plus a back up keeper (didn’t really watch Kepa this season but he seems to have done ok at Bournemouth and would be ok I guess). Another in midfield and two up front please.
Cheers TTG! Europe was the real satisfaction this past season, that made us (mostly) forget about our (relative) league woes.
Bring on next season!
Liverpool push the boat out and pay £116m for Florian Wirz from Bayern Leverkusen.
C100@4: ‘Pool has also replaced Alexander-Arnold with a very good wingback in Jeremie Frimpong, for £34 million. Getting their key business done, and done early.
Many thanks TTG for this excellent summary of our glorious, and nearly gloriouser Champions League campaign.
To update Ned’s post about Santi Cazorla’s exploits in the playoff semifinal in the last drinks,
Santi Cazorla’s Real Oviedo will face even tinier minnows Mirandes in the two legged playoff final in the hopes of advancing to La Liga next season.
The first leg of the final will take place on Sunday, with Mirandes hosting Oviedo at 19:00 CEST. The second will be six days later in Oviedo on Saturday at 21:00 CEST. The Asturian side are hoping to return to La Liga after 24 years out of the top division, and coming close to administration, while Mirandes would be making their debut in Spain’s top flight.
What a magnificent climax to your enjoyable, detailed and thought-provoking trilogy, TTG! A superb body of work of the highest standard that would grace the most feted broadsheet or forum. You summarise well this strange season which began with huge optimism and expectations that were probably unreasonable as progress in this game we love is rarely linear, in which the league campaign was sabotaged by PGMOL muppets and a shocking sequence of injuries but delivered a glorious CL campaign that you reprise superbly here; a campaign that seemed extremely unlikely to be as successful as key players fell like ninepins.
Your trilogy sustains well the traditions of the Guvna and I am sure that Dave would be chuffed to see his legacy so well maintained. He hoped to see us lift ‘Big Ears’ before he passed but was not to be so lucky. Reading your third instalment fills me with optimism that some of us may well fulfil Dave’s dream.
A magnum of your favourite fizz sits on ice on the bar for your delectation.
bath@7: Well said.
Excellent summary of our CL season, TTG. Your point about those, bizarrely, demanding the head of Arteta for his “failure” is well made.
This season I had the opportunity to go to Milan and Lisbon with 21 CG. Both were great trips, to great cities, where we were welcomed. Hats off to the Italian Gooners, who found a bar just outside the centre of town and beyond the alcohol ban zone imposed by the prefect of police. They were great fun and every bit as committed as any N1/ N5 supporter I have ever met. Some of them had come up all the way from Apulia and Calabria. Ben’ fatto. Didn’t think much of the San Siro. Next day, we were talking to some Inter fans who said that they thought they were lucky to go through and we were the better team. We agreed.
Lisbon was amazing. A real warm welcome, and the local police were rather more friendly than the riot police in Milan, who really seemed up for a fight, despite there being no sign of the away fans being in any way interested. Any city with such great food and people, and where you can sit on the (river) beach, drinking rather good Aperol Spritzes in shorts and shirtsleeves at the end of November ought to be on the to do list. If you haven’t been, go. And we absolutely hammered Sporting. Gyökeres had one moment where he turned Saliba and actually maintained the distance gained, got his shot away and hit the bar. A good sign were we to sign him, but much if his play wasn’t terribly encouraging.
Best away trip was Madrid though. What an atmosphere in the Plaza Major before the game. A great stadium and a fantastic win. Their players were disgusting, most disappointingly Bellingham who comported himself the way you might expect a spoilt 6 year to do. The best part was the post match hour long rendition, with the fine percussive help of the Ashburton Army drummer, to the newly minted Martinelli song, taking the Emilian Canzone dell’Operaio (workers song) Ciao Bella as its core. Quite, quite amazing.
I can’t wait to do it all again next season. See you all in Budapest next May.
Congratulations TTG on another well researched and beautifully written magnum opus. Do I feel a book coming on?
And CER thank you for your colourful and joyous tales of Champions League away days. I don’t have the stamina or strength to follow the Arsenal overseas, so it’s great to live them vicariously via your pen.
Thanks for those memories CER . I haven’t been away in Europe to see Arsenal since the CL final in Paris but I always found the attitude of the police a concern. In Copenhagen in 2000 they were woefully inadequate and we could have seen deaths in the street . It was like an elongated trip to Upton Park in the eighties
In Paris the police were up for a fight and on my trips to Italy the police are very aggressive . Less so in Spain
Ironic that the country who exported football hooliganism to the world now probably has the least problem with it among the big football nations
TTG@11: Football hooliganism in England has been priced out of existance. Market-based solution 🙂
Ned@12
Exactly right – the official term is ‘ gentrification ‘ !
C100@10 – you are the inspiration, with your travels up and down the country, week in, week out.
TTG@11- I didn’t go but friends who went to Copenhagen also reported the animal behaviour of the opposition fans and utter lack of protection afforded by the police. Paris is now frankly unvisitable as an away fan, I am told by the seasoned travellers. If the uncontrolled home fans don’t get you the CRS will. I suppose at least the, frankly massive, overkill of riot and heavily armed police in Milan ensured there was no trouble there.
I won’t go to Paris, Marseille, Rome, Naples or anywhere in Turkey but beyond that, I’ll try to get to as many Euro away days as possible next season.
CER
I did go to Copenhagen. I flew out in the morning and arranged to have lunch with some friends near the Tivoli Gardens. Galatasaray fans rode around the town centre picking on any Gooners they could find . During lunch my daughter in London phoned me and talked me through where there were riots and fighting and where was clear . Some of my friends had children with them .
It was ok in the ground and I had a coach back to the airport but apparently it was very dangerous getting back to the town centre . My plane was delayed four hours . All around me cut and wounded Arsenal fans were patching up their wounds .I got back to Gatwick at 6 . My phone battery had gone, my wife was frantic with worry and I had to address a business school in London at midday . And we lost ..on penalties ! That was a very disappointing day and potentially a very dangerous one .
Arsenal fans who went to the Parma game loved the atmosphere then and the low- key policing but the Copenhagen police had no idea how to deal with mayhem on this scale .
Brilliant, TTG – a thoroughly enjoyable recap of a European season – so much of which was already fading from memory.
Thanks for a quite superb series of articles.
Good drinks all round.
Well said, Bath @7 !
Would buying Grealish be a good idea?
Ebay or Vinted? Seriously probably not. It depends on how much. Useful in positions we need but is he an upgrade?
We’d need Villa-vintage Grealish but it would offer the intriguing possibility of supplements/alternatives to all attacks going through Ødegaard on the right. The key question would be, does Grealish’s post-City career go the way of Phillips or Jesus/Zinny.
@18 not for me, never seemed to get any better at 130ty and unless MA could develop him further he seems a bit pricey for a squad player.
I gave him the spud test – ie. would I be bothered if the spuds signed him and it was a no
Eze has a 68m release clause I read, that might be worth thinking about rather than Grealish if Eze actually wanted to join us (he seems quite attached to Palace for some reason)
I really like the idea of OM’s Spud Test. Grealish doesn’t pass, for me. Eze does. Although still have a residual doubt about him putting in the off the ball effort Arteta requires.
Spud test 👍
Does Thomas Frank pass?
Frank Thomas is another Levy punt. He’s never managed a big club and that’s still the case.
Spot on SP @25.
Matt @21, I really like ‘The Spud Test’.
SP@25: 🙂
OM @21 – I plan on invoking the spud test whenever I’m trying to decide if I want to buy something, e.g. sh*t sandwich versus ham and cheese croissant. The neighbors would want the sh*t sandwich so I’ll go with the croissant.
@24 Ned, I’m with SP too, the spuds are welcome to Frank.
Levy will never get it fortunately and the spuds are welcome to him too.
OM@29: Given how highly regarded Frank is within the game, much better opportunities than working for Levy would eventually have been on offer. Seems like a serious lapse in judgment to have agreed to move across London, even if there was CL football in prospect. I hope the redundancy terms were the first clause Frank negotiated in his new contract.
Looks like Carlos Cuesta one of Mikel’s assistant coaches is going 5o join Parma as Head Coach . He is 29 and this indicates how highly he is thought of in coaching circles . He is certainly very highly rated at Arsenal. He was considered for the Norwich job last year . This will necessitate finding a replacement before pre- season training starts
Good luck Carlos!
Prescient background piece on Cuesta from The Athletic last year:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5545158/2024/06/07/carlos-cuesta-arsenal-coach-rise/
Sounds as if he will be a hard man to replace.
Yeah, best of luck to Cuesta, it’s a great chance for him and he will be hard to replace but it is also good for us in another way – good people will see that working at The Arsenal helps you get a decent step forward in your career.
@29 I am not entirely sure Frank should be highly rated although he has certainly done well at Brentford.
Best of luck to Carlos Cuesta at Parma. You can’t hold back good people. It’s a bold leap for him, much like, but perhaps not quite as bold as MA8’s leap to the Arsenal hotseat.
It’s sounds like TP5 wants a pay rise and possibly a longer contract than we are prepared to offer and we, sensibly, are not going to meet his demands. He has other offers apparently and we are said to have an alternative lined up.
Oh look! First up at the Old Toilet. Statement victory please.
Jeepers!
Dippers away third up
C130y at home fifth up
Interspersed by Fulham (H) and Forest (H).
A pretty testing start to the season.
Interesting first 5 games. I’m sure our opponents won’t relish playing us so early either.
Looking with interest at how PGMOL ref our games next season.
Bath@36: and a trip to the Old Toilet first up. Testing start, a bit like a few seasons ago when we faced Chelsea and Man City in the first three games. At least a couple of awkward away trips will be out of the way early.
Our fixtures in full:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/teams/arsenal/scores-fixtures/2025-08
Note for your diary: The deadline for your 2025-26 Predictathon submissions looks to be 7pm N5 time on Friday, August 15.
It will shortly be announced that MLS has penned his new contract
The FA has charged Mudryk with breaching its anti-doping rules. Confirmation of a very expensive bullet dodged.
TTG@40: That would be very good news. I hope it contains a massive release clause to keep Madrid at bay.
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