By Tony Attwood
Last season, as we have noticed, our opponents in the final Champions League round of matches, won their domestic league. The are Kairat and we can speak of them winning their domestic league last season because it is a spring, summer and autumn league.
Here’s how the table looked. at the end of the last summer season. It shows that, within their own terms, they are a team to be reckoned with, but that the standard in the league is not on a level with the Premier League. But I suspect even with the benefit of playing in their summer, they would still have struggled to get out of the Champions League, having fought their way into it from the Preliminary Rounds. Here’s how their last season ended.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kairat (C) | 26 | 18 | 5 | 3 | 53 | 19 | +34 | 59 |
| 2 | Astana | 26 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 66 | 30 | +36 | 57 |
| 3 | Tobol | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 45 | 25 | +20 | 54 |
| 4 | Elimai | 26 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 47 | 31 | +16 | 48 |
Arsenal play them tomorrow, the 28th with a kick-off at 8 pm. Arsenal are certain to finish this part of the tournament in the top eight, since Barcelona in ninth, cannot overtake Arsenal. And so that means, no knockout extra round for Arsenal, but straight into the final phase of the competition. It also possibly means winning the league round, but we will look further at that tomorrow.
It seems more than likely that all the English clubs will progress ultimately, either directly or through a play-off, but Tottenham, Newcastle United, Chelsea, and Manchester City all still have something to do to ensure an automatic place in the knockout stages. If any of them slip up they could find themselves playing that extra home and away round.
There has certainly been an improvement in Arsenal’s Champions League performances in recent years, and in 2017/18, Arsenal got to the semi-finals of the Europa League. But then the rebuilding started, and Arsenal did not appear again in the Champions League until 2023/24 when Arsenal reached the quarter finals, and of course, 2024/25, when Arsenal made it to the semi-finals.
In May 2025, Arsenal had a Partial UEFA coefficient ranking that put them 12 th in the European table in that regard, reflecting a rise of ten places over their position on season. As such, they were the third-placed English team behind Manchester City in second, with Liverpool in fourth.
Looking back, in the period 2000/01 Arsenal were regular competitors in the Champions League each year, but only made the quarter finals in 2001, 2004 and 2008. However, in 2009 they made the semi-finals for the first time. But then came a longer period of Arsenal departing in the round of 16, until in 2017/18 the club made the semi-finals of the Europa League followed by taking runners-up position in that competition in 2019.
The return to the Champions League came in 2023/24 with the club reaching the quarter finals that year, and the semi-finals last season. As we have seen, Arsenal have now qualified for the round of 16, which starts after the play-offs for the clubs that finished in ninth to 24th position. The clubs that finish in 9th to 16 are seeded for that round.
Because of Arsenal’s position at the top of the Champions League, they will be seeded, which means that they will play their home game in the knockout rounds second in each case, which brings another small advantage in recognition of their perfect run in the league section – at least thus far!
If Arsenal were to lose their final game and Bayern were to win theirs, and the total goal difference between the two clubs were to improve by five or more goals in Bayern’s favour, then Arsenal would actually come second. However, this seems extremely unlikely. Indeed, it is a set of results that would put the Macclesfield beating of FA Cup holders Crystal Palace in the shade. So I am not going to take those statistics any further, as I am certain Arsenal will not only avoid that heavy defeat but will also avoid the draw and will win the game.
But even so, I believe it will be worth watching, and it is possible that we might see a few players whom we don’t get to see too often. I’ll take a look at the injury list and the predictions for the team tomorrow.
