3 winners and 2 losers as Arsenal dominate the Champions League table

This Champions League campaign could hardly have gone any better for Arsenal up to press, but will they be the side hoisting the trophy aloft at the Puskás Aréna on 30 May? Mikel Arteta's team conclude the league phase with eight wins out of eight, following Wednesday night's low-key, stress-free 3-2 victory over Kairat.

So now, the Gunners will face either Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund or Olympiacos, yes them again, in the round of, surely among the favourites to go all the way to Budapest. Looking back at the league phase first, here are 3 winners and 2 losers from their campaign.

Winner: Gabriel Martinelli

This week, Gabriel Martinelli continued his exceptional scoring spree in this season's Champions League, bundling home his sixth goal in seven appearances at the back-post. He thereby ranks among Europe's very best in the scoring charts:

UEFA Champions League top-scorers 2025/26

By netting against Club Brugge at Jan Breydelstadion last month, Martinelli became the first-ever Arsenal player to score in five successive Champions League appearances. This is in stark contrast to his Premier League form, having scored only once all season, netting against Manchester City in September. You have to go back to December 2024 for his sixth most-recent league goal ago.

So, when the Champions League anthem echoes shortly before kick off under the lights, Martinelli is seemingly a different player, needing to find this form on a more consistent basis.

Loser: Martin Ødegaard

While many of Arsenal's attacking players flourished in the Champions League, enjoying the extra space afforded to them by European teams, the same cannot be said for Martin Ødegaard. The captain set up Bukayo Saka's late clincher against Olympiacos on matchday two, but that was his only goal or assists during the league phase.

The caveat is that the Norwegian only featured in half of the matches, accumulating just 215 minutes, which is less than 30% in total. However, more generally, Ødegaard's position is coming under scrutiny, having been hooked before the hour mark against both Nottingham Forest and Manchester United recently, despite the need for a goal in both.

Kai Havertz looked sharp in midfield against Kairat, before being replaced by Ødegaard at half time, while many supporters would like to see Eberechi Eze given a run in the team there too. By the time their last 16 tie rolls around in March, Arteta will need his skipper back to his best.

Winner: Christian Nørgaard

Since arriving from Brentford, where he was the club captain, Christian Nørgaard is yet to start a Premier League game, seeing just three brief cameos off the bench. However, he has been included in the lineup for three of the last five Champions League matches, filling in at the back in Brugge, as well as anchoring midfield against Slavia Prague and Kairat.

Not only has the Danish international fulfilled a lifelong dream to play in the competition, he has proved his worth. Clearly, Nørgaard is behind Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino in the midfield pecking order, something he would've been fully aware of prior to putting pen to paper.

Nevertheless, he has proved that he is a serviceable option, especially in these European matches, which will only enhance his chances of inclusion later down the line across all competitions.

Loser: Continental European football

This is more of an abstract point, and one that isn't Arsenal specific, but the English dominance of the Champions League is certainly alarming. Five of the top eight finishers are from the Premier League, with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Sporting CP the exceptions; kudos to the Portuguese side in particular. If you include 12th placed Newcastle, half of the top 12 are from England.

On top of this, Premier League clubs averaged 2.19 points per game in the league phase, substantially more than teams from anywhere else:

Points-per-game per country in the Champions League

Note: the table above only includes leagues that entered multiple into the league phase.

This is surely a concerning trend, albeit only one year is a small sample size. Having said that, this of course does not guarantee all four semi-finalists will by English, but Premier League dominance, simply due to the revenue those clubs can generate, may become even more of a theme than it is now in the coming seasons.

Winner: Arsenal's hopes of winning the competition

Arsenal may boast very little European pedigree, certainly when compared to other juggernauts, but Gooners surely have to be dreaming of being in Budapest in late-May. Going through the league phase with a perfect record is no small feat, enjoying noteworthy wins over Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid and Internazionale at San Siro.

Last season was just the third time ever that the Gunners had reached the Champions League semi-finals, after '06 and '09, but Arteta is all about raising the standards and making history. There should be no one left in the competition that Arsenal fear, so will this finally be their year?