Lineker explains why Arsenal won’t win the Champions League over ‘tasty’ rivals | OneFootball

Gary Lineker has explained why he thinks Arsenal will fall short of winning the Champions League this season and why a “tasty” rival have a better chance.

The Gunners lost to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties in the final last term and Mikel Arteta will hope his side can take the final step to win the trophy for the first time in 2026/27.

Martin Odegaard continued his fine start to the season to secure three points for Arsenal against Napoli in their first game of the new campaign on Wednesday.

But amid criticism of Arsenal’s summer transfer business, which saw them try and fail to make a marquee forward addition, Lineker believes they are lacking the “superstars” that give their rivals – like Barcelona – a better chance to win the competition.

“Arsenal will be one of the favourites but I don’t think overall they’ve got quite the superstars that some of the other big guns in Europe have,” Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast.

“I do think Barcelona might be quite tasty and take some beating this season now they’ve got Rodri in there as well in that crucial position.”

Julian Alvarez ‘would have been perfect’

Ex-Man City defender Micah Richards also questioned whether Arsenal have the attacking flair to go one better in the Champions League after they made attempts to sign Vincius Junior and Julian Alvarez in the summer.

“I’ve got no doubts about them in the Premier League but I’m not sure about Arsenal in the Champions League,” Richards added.

“If you go back to last season they were actually favourites early doors because of how good they are defensively.

“I think for them to be real force in Europe, Julian Alvarez would have been perfect.

“There’s obviously been reports he only wanted Barcelona but if you look at the way he plays for Argentina, there’s times where if Arsenal had more pace on the counter they could be an even bigger thread.

“If you look across Europe, teams like Barcelona and PSG have probably more pace than Arsenal going forward.

“I just feel at times that for Arsenal to take their game to the next level, they would be almost complete if they had that superstar striker. Julian Alvarez would have been perfect for that position.”