The Arsenal Football Club has had some rough times over the last 10 years, with the culmination of this occurring during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. This was when the club trotted out Eddie Nketiah, Mattéo Guendouzi, Joe Willock, Kieran Tierney, Pablo Marí, Shkodran Mustafi and Hector Bellerin on a nightly basis. Coach Mikel Arteta has transformed the Arsenal squad into a juggernaut in just a few seasons.
Since then, Arsenal has only gone up, finishing second in the league the past three seasons and leading the league in the 2025 season.
Instead of Nketiah, Guendouzi, Willock, Tierney, Marí, Mustafi and Bellarin, Arsenal now has stars like Viktor Gyokores, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice, Justin Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori and David Raya.
Even players that were part of the club during 2020 have started to flourish with Bukayo Saka becoming one of the best young right wingers in the world and Martin Ødegaard transferring to club after a loan spell during lockdown.
With all the improvements the team has made over the four seasons since then, Arsenal looks unstoppable in both the Premier League and the Champions League.
In the Premier League, Arsenal sits at the top of the table, five points clear of Manchester City in second. Arsenal has won nine, drawn three and lost only one in their 13 matches played this season, with a large part of that success due to how good the defense is.
Timber looks like a world class right back; Calafiori defends great with an even better attacking presence; and the best center back duo in the world, Saliba and Gabriel, makes it so nobody gets past. Through 13 matches, Arsenal have only allowed seven goals, the lowest in the league by five and have scored 25 goals which is second most in the league.
In the Champions League, Arsenal have been even better, winning all five matches and only conceding one goal. Their most impressive win of the young season was a 3-1 bashing against Bayern Munich who had not lost a game in the league, cups or Champions League to that point. Arsenal in the Champions League has scored at least three goals in all but one game (where they scored two) and sit at the top of the table, being the only undefeated team.
So, as the season goes along, will Arsenal keep up the pace and win the double, or will it all come crashing down just like seasons prior?
In the Champions League, Arsenal’s poise on attack and defense are up to the challenge. For the rest of the group stage matches, Arsenal is only set to face one formidable foe, but that isn’t to take away from their other opponents.
They play Inter Milan on Tuesday Jan. 20 who has proven to be a formidable foe in the past couple of seasons. Inter won the Serie A in the 2023-24 season, have made two of the past three Champions League finals and aren’t showing any signs of stopping. Inter sit fourth in the Champions League standings with four wins and only one loss to Atletico Madrid 2-1 this past Wednesday. Inter scored 12 goals and only conceded three in the first five matches.
Overall, this will be the hardest Arsenal opponent in the group stage other than Bayern, and after that, it is up to the other big teams in Europe to knock Arsenal out in the knockout stages.
In the Premier League Arsenal has shown some weakness as of late with a 1-1 draw to Chelsea this last Sunday and a 2-2 draw to Sunderland on Nov. 8.
Even though Arsenal doesn’t look as good as of late, they are still working Ødegaard back into the starting 11 after he sustained a knee injury in October. Arsenal also hasn’t had star defender Gabriel in the line-up since he sustained a muscular problem over international break.
Saliba also picked up an injury this week after training which made him miss the Chelsea game on Sunday. It is unclear when Saliba or Gabriel will be back in the line-up, but their backups are still very good.
If they can keep injuries at a minimum, the Champions League and Premier League better be worried, cause Arsenal looks incredible, and there may not be anyone in the world that can stop them.