Arsenal Begins Champions League Journey in Naples

Arsenal’s long road back to the summit of Europe starts in the heat of Naples.

Fresh from dismantling Chelsea in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta’s side swap London for the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday night, opening another Champions League campaign with the weight of unfinished business on their backs.

From Budapest heartbreak to one last step

Arsenal came within two kicks of the trophy last season. A penalty shootout defeat to Paris St. Germain in Budapest still hangs over this group, not as a scar they hide, but as a reminder of how close they’ve come.

That final was a clash of opposites. Arsenal staggered in after an exhausting league run-in; PSG arrived fresher, cushioned by another largely uncontested domestic title. The margins were fine. The lesson was brutal.

Yet the trajectory under Arteta is undeniable. Since returning to the Champions League after the 2022/23 season, Arsenal have climbed the ladder year by year: quarterfinals in 2023/24, semifinals in 2024/25, finalists last season. There is only one rung left.

Winning this competition is the last mountain for this team. It is the difference between a very good era and a truly historic one.

New format, same demand: start fast

The journey restarts on Wednesday with the league phase back for a third straight year. The structure is now familiar: eight games, eight different opponents, two drawn from each of four pots based on UEFA’s coefficient rankings. Champions and European heavyweights in Pot 1, down to Pot 4 where the newest or lowest-ranked entrants begin.

Finish in the top eight and you skip the first knockout round entirely. Arsenal have earned that bye in each of the last two seasons, topping the league phase outright last year. That isn’t a dream anymore; it’s the standard they’ve set for themselves.

Eight games sound like a marathon. In reality, it’s a sprint with no room for stumbles. A strong start matters, and Arsenal must chase it away from home, in one of Europe’s most volatile arenas.

Their league phase schedule underlines the scale of the task:

• Napoli vs Arsenal – Wednesday, September 9
• Arsenal vs Lille – Tuesday, October 13
• Bayern Munich vs Arsenal – Wednesday, October 21
• Slavia Prague vs Arsenal – Wednesday, November 4
• Arsenal vs Borussia Dortmund – Tuesday, November 24
• Arsenal vs Real Madrid – Wednesday, December 9
• Real Betis vs Arsenal – Wednesday, January 20
• Arsenal vs Sabah FK – Wednesday, January 27

Naples is the first test. It may also be one of the trickiest.

Napoli’s wobble hides a heavyweight

Napoli arrive with a Serie A record of 1-0-2 and sit 13th in the table. On paper, that looks like a soft landing for the Premier League champions’ first European trip of the season.

It isn’t.

Those two defeats came against Como, currently second, and Inter Milan, sitting third. Napoli have also had to work around injuries to key players in the opening weeks. Strip away the early-season noise and you find a club still only two years removed from winning Serie A in 2024/25 – their second domestic title in five years – and fresh from lifting the Supercoppa Italiana last season.

They know how to win in Italy. The question is whether they can translate that into Europe.

Last season’s Champions League run was a mess. Just two wins in the league phase left them out of the competition by January. Like Arsenal, they carry a history of frustration in this tournament, but unlike Arsenal, they do not enter as contenders. They lurk in that awkward space: dangerous, capable of reaching the knockouts, but far from the favourites.

A squad in transition, a manager under scrutiny

Napoli’s squad is still rich in talent, but the attack carries a glaring hole. Victor Osimhen’s move to Turkey two seasons ago left a void at centre-forward. This summer, Romelu Lukaku followed the same path, also heading to Turkey. The club moved for Rasmus Højlund from Manchester United to plug the gap. It’s a solid signing, not a blockbuster, and he walks into a dressing room that already includes his former United teammate Scott McTominay and Manchester City great Kevin de Bruyne.

Around them, Napoli have reshaped quietly but decisively.

Incomings:

• Rasmus Højlund (Manchester United)
• Alisson Santos (Sporting)
• Vanja Milinković-Savić (Torino)
• Benoît Badiashile (loan from Chelsea)
• Costantino Favasuli (Catanzaro)
• Mattia Esposito (Sorrento)
• Dinis Rodrigues (FC Sion)

Departures:

• Miguel Gutiérrez (Leverkusen)
• Giovanni Simeone (Torino)
• Romelu Lukaku (Fenerbahçe)
• Alessandro Zanoli (Udinese)
• Luis Hasa (Frosinone)
• Walid Cheddira (Avellino)
• Alessio Zerbi (Frosinone)

Injury issues add another layer of uncertainty. Alessandro Buongiorno (knee), Luca Marianucci (ligament), Scott McTominay (arrhythmia), and Giovani (hernia) are all sidelined, stripping depth and experience from Massimiliano Allegri’s options.

Allegri himself sits at the heart of the intrigue. The former Juventus boss took over from Antonio Conte after the 2025/26 season, inheriting a side that had tasted recent glory but needed a new direction. Allegri is one of the most decorated managers of his generation in Serie A, yet he has not lifted a league title since 2018/19 with Juventus.

Can he sustain what Conte built? Can he push Napoli back towards the top rather than presiding over a slow slide away from it? Those questions will grow louder if this European campaign starts badly.

Arsenal’s edge – and the danger of history

Arsenal’s all-time record against Napoli reads well: three wins and one defeat. That matters only up to a point. The Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is rarely a gentle place for visiting sides, and Napoli will treat the arrival of the Premier League champions – their first such visitors in over seven years – as an occasion to reset their season.

Arsenal, by contrast, stride into this tie in rhythm. Three wins from three in the Premier League, confidence high, patterns familiar, and a group that has learned the hard way what it takes to go deep in this competition.

They also know what’s missing.

The stage is set:

• WHO: Arsenal at Napoli
• WHAT: Champions League league phase, matchday 1
• WHEN: Wednesday, September 9th, 3:00pm EST / 12:00pm PST / 8:00pm GMT
• WHERE: Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples
• HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on the Paramount+ and Prime Video apps

For Arsenal, this isn’t just another European night. It’s the first step of a season that can only be judged one way: do they finally climb that last rung, or does the mountain grow steeper again?