Arsenal wrapped up a perfect 2025/26 league phase campaign in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday by beating Kairat Almaty 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium.
With top spot all but secured already, manager Mikel Arteta made 11 changes to his starting XI for the visit of Kazakhstan’s best club team, with the likes of David Raya, Gabriel Magalhaes and Bukayo Saka all given the night off.
Despite those wholesale changes, the Gunners took the lead inside two minutes courtesy of a strike by Viktor Gyokeres.
Kairat equalised quickly when Jorginho converted a penalty given away by Riccardo Calafiori.
But Kai Havertz restored Arsenal’s lead on the quarter-hour, before Gabriel Martinelli added to it later in the first half.
Arsenal had countless chances to get out of sight, but eventually won by a much narrower margin than they should have after Ricardinho struck late on.
Arsenal finish top of Champions League table with 100% record
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Arsenal | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 24 |
| 2. Bayern Munich | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 21 |
| 3. Liverpool | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 18 |
| 4. Tottenham | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 17 |
| 5. Barcelona | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 16 |
| 6. Chelsea | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 16 |
| 7. Sporting | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
| 8. Man City | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
| 9. Real Madrid | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 15 |
| 10. Inter Milan | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 15 |
| 11. PSG | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 14 |
| 12. Newcastle | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 14 |
| 13. Juventus | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
| 14. Atletico Madrid | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| 15. Atalanta | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| 16. Leverkusen | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -1 | 12 |
| 17. Dortmund | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 18. Olympiacos | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | -4 | 11 |
| 19. Club Brugge | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -2 | 10 |
| 20. Galatasaray | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -2 | 10 |
| 21. Monaco | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | -6 | 10 |
| 22. Qarabag | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -8 | 10 |
| 23. Bodo/Glimt | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | -1 | 9 |
| 24. Benfica | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | -2 | 9 |
| 25. Marseille | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | -3 | 9 |
| 26. Pafos | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | -3 | 9 |
| 27. Union SG | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | -9 | 9 |
| 28. PSV | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
| 29. Athletic Bilbao | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -5 | 8 |
| 30. Napoli | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -6 | 8 |
| 31. Copenhagen | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -9 | 8 |
| 32. Ajax | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | -13 | 6 |
| 33. Frankfurt | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -11 | 4 |
| 34. Slavia Prague | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | -14 | 3 |
| 35. Villarreal | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | -13 | 1 |
| 36. Kairat | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | -15 | 1 |
Mikel Arteta reflects on Arsenal’s perfect Champions League league phase
Speaking after overseeing Arsenal’s eighth consecutive European win to finish off the league phase, Arteta told TNT Sports: “Especially in this competition, we are in the position that we wanted to be.
“We won eight games out of eight which is so difficult to do, so credit to the boys. We close this chapter now and we can focus on other competitions.”
On finishing top, he added: “It gives you certain privilege, to play two less games and the home advantage in the second round, so we just have to wait and see now who we get in the next phase and we will prepare that with a lot of enthusiasm because it is a competition that we love.”
Arsenal’s opponents in the round of 16 will be either Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen or Atalanta.
Arsenal’s Champions League campaign in numbers
Wednesday’s win over Kairat was Arsenal’s eighth Champions League victory in a row, setting a new club record.
Not only did Arsenal win all eight of their Champions League games during this season’s league phase, they were also the leading scorers with 23 goals.
Arsenal’s 23 Champions League goals were spread between 10 players, with Martinelli their leading scorer in Europe this season with six.
Most team goals in league phase of 2025/26 Champions League
| Team | Goals | Penalties |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 23 | 1 |
| Bayern Munich | 22 | 2 |
| Barcelona | 22 | 2 |
| Real Madrid | 21 | 3 |
| Paris Saint-Germain | 21 | 1 |
| Liverpool | 20 | 1 |
| Borussia Dortmund | 19 | 2 |
The Gunners boasted the tightest defence too, conceding just four goals in their eight matches.
However, one team kept more clean sheets than Arsenal’s five. That was north London rivals Tottenham with six, after shutting out Villarreal, Monaco, Copenhagen, Slavia Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Best defences in 2025/26 Champions League
| Team | Goals conceded | Clean sheets |
|---|---|---|
| Tottenham | 7 | 6 |
| Arsenal | 4 | 5 |
| Newcastle | 7 | 4 |
| Monaco | 14 | 4 |
| Inter | 7 | 4 |
| Liverpool | 8 | 4 |
Arsenal top combined 2024/26 Champions League table
Arsenal topping the league phase table in the 2025/26 edition of the UEFA Champions League comes after they placed third last season in what was the first edition of the new format.
The Gunners were the only side to finish the league phase with a 100% record this season, underlining just how difficult perfection is to achieve in the expanded 36-team format.
No team managed to win all eight of their matches last season either, with Liverpool topping the table in 2024/25 despite suffering one defeat.
If you were to combine the Champions League table using the results from this season’s league phase and last season’s, then Arsenal would be top of that too, four points ahead of Liverpool in second place.
Real Madrid, the most successful European team of all time, would be seventh in the combined table. Real Madrid finished ninth in this season’s league phase after losing 4-2 to Benfica in their final match.
Benfica’s last goal against Real Madrid was scored by goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin in the eighth minute of added time.
| Team | MP | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Arsenal | 16 | 39 | 7 | +32 | 43 |
| 2. Liverpool | 16 | 37 | 13 | +24 | 39 |
| 3. Bayern | 16 | 42 | 20 | +22 | 36 |
| 4. Barcelona | 16 | 50 | 27 | +23 | 35 |
| 5. Inter | 16 | 26 | 8 | +18 | 34 |
| 6. Atletico Madrid | 16 | 37 | 27 | +10 | 31 |
| 7. Real Madrid | 16 | 41 | 24 | +17 | 30 |
| 8. Atalanta | 16 | 30 | 16 | +14 | 28 |
Despite their fine form in Europe this season, Alan Shearer recently predicted that Arsenal would fall short of Champions League glory this season.
Shearer fancies the Gunners to win the Premier League title but he fancies Paris Saint-Germain to retain their title as the kings of Europe.
