Arsenal begin their latest attempt at European greatness with a trip to Italy to take on SSC Napoli in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday night as they play their first match of the 2026-27 UEFA Champions League campaign.
The visitors come into the game riding an incredible wave of form under Mikel Arteta. The Gunners have started the season with perfection, having won all four games that they have played so far. The impressive streak has been boosted by their comeback against another team from the capital, Chelsea, who they beat 2-1 on Saturday thanks to wonderful goals from Havertz and Ødegaard. Arsenal also have a great record in their European opening matchdays, not losing any of the past nine such games. Coming second in last season’s tournament, the Londoners are keen to win their opener this time around.
The hosts are trying to stabilize after a difficult start to the season under Massimiliano Allegri. The Italian team began their season on a high by beating Genoa, but some awful defending led to two straight losses against Como and Inter Milan. Taking a shocking 3-2 defeat to Inter following their early lead of 2-0, Allegri’s team needs to tighten up on their defense. The job of Napoli is made even harder because of some missing players, including Scott McTominay, and in addition, their history of playing against English teams is not very good since they have lost their last three games.
Notwithstanding the fact that Italian teams have found life very difficult playing against English sides, the truth is that Arsenal won their head-to-head when they faced Napoli in the quarter-finals of the same 2018/2019 season at the Europa League stage, which should be a source of great inspiration. Most likely, Arteta will feature his optimal squad, which features the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel, as Mosquera will most definitely not feature at all, given that he sustained a knock.
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