Arsenal eye statement win against Bayern Munich | OneFootball

Arsenal and Bayern Munich meet at the Emirates on Wednesday with both sides perfect in the Champions League league phase, and only goal difference separating them.

For once, history matters less than form, and the contest feels far closer than their past meetings suggest.

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In June 2013, Arsenal’s then CEO, Ivan Gazidis said, “We should be able to compete at a level like a club such as Bayern Munich.” Everybody laughed, including Arsenal fans.

After that statement, and before Gazidis left the club in 2018, Arsenal played Bayern seven more times, winning twice, but losing four, including a run of three 5-1 defeats in a row.

How things have changed since then.

As we come to the end of 2025, Arsenal host Bayern Munich knowing that top spot in the Champions League league phase could be shaped by what happens at the Emirates.

Both clubs come in with four wins from four and the margins between them are genuinely small. Bayern have scored only three more than Arsenal but have also conceded three more, so there is no grand divide here, as there was so often in the past.

For Mikel Arteta, the standout detail of this season has been control. Arsenal have gone through the league phase without conceding so far, have won 15 straight European home group matches, and arrive off the back of a 4-1 win over Spurs that underlined the squad’s strengths despite a lengthy injury list.

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Bayern are unbeaten this season and scoring goals for fun (41 in the Bundesliga, almost twice as many as RB Leipzig in second place), but had to come back from two down at the weekend to seal their 6-2 win over Freiburg at home. They remain one of the few sides in Europe who can match Arsenal physically and technically.

Arteta will again be without Gabriel Magalhães, ruled out after a thigh injury with Brazil. He admitted, “It’s clearly a blow. It’s our leader in our backline,” but added, “the good thing is we have some very good options. They need to stand up now.” It remains to be seen if Piero Hincapié, who started against Spurs, or Cristhian Mosquera, will get the nod to start, but there are no concerns from fans regardless of who is picked.

Bayern travel without Luis Díaz (suspended), Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies. Former Gunner, Serge Gnabry is expected to face his former club after missing the game at the weekend, while Vincent Kompany has leaned on younger players to cover injuries throughout the season.

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History leans heavily in Bayern’s favour and Arsenal fans still carry the scars of those brutal defeats at Bayern’s hands. They have beaten Arsenal in four of the last five meetings, including the quarter-final in 2024, settled by Joshua Kimmich’s header in Munich, when Arsenal could – and perhaps should – have done better.

Arsenal, however, have only two wins in their last nine against German opposition. Bayern, meanwhile, have lost just two of their last 15 Champions League matches.

But this Arsenal side are a very different proposition from the one Bayern repeatedly dismantled in the past decade. They are the only team in this season’s competition not to concede, and their home form is now one of the most formidable in the tournament. Only a freak free-kick has defeated the Gunners this season.

An Arsenal win here will be yet another massive statement from this team, and a long overdue one, at that.