LONDON — A slice of history for Arsenal, an etching into the history books for this particular era of the European Cup. Twelve teams had gone unbeaten in the group stage before, none yet when there were eight games to play before the knockout round. Does that mean anything at all? Ask again in 15 years.
After all, if Arne Slot had really wanted to, he could probably have got eight wins from eight last season. Instead he did what any coach would have done in his position and shuffled the pack secure in the knowledge that a top seeding position was in the bag. Mikel Arteta did much the same tonight, it’s just that he can rotate his Arsenal side while still rolling out Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze and a returning Kai Havertz. That was always going to be more than enough to brush aside bottom side Kairat.
Havertz’s return came with a goal and assist in the first 15 minutes of a game that in pure footballing terms amounted to little more than one of Europe’s best sides playing with their food. Riccardo Calafiori spotting Kairat a penalty, elegantly dispatched by Jorginho (no, not that one), at least gave the packed away end something to celebrate. They got to end their campaign in dream fashion too. Ricardinho, every inch the sort of player you’d expect if I told you he was a Brazilian wearing the No.99 shirt in a fringe European league capping the game with Kairar’s second in the 94th minute. The sight of the delighted visitors massed in front of their brilliant, ebuliant away end was one of the treats of the Champions League so far.
Victory was rarely in doubt for Arsenal but the nature of this win was hardly the sort to have supporters rushing to book their cabin. Really, there’s probably not a lot to this beyond Arsenal not really converting enough of their four-plus expected goals, turning 60 penalty box touches into three goals while Kairat turned their four into two. It would be unwise to read too much into the struggles of the second half, if there is any time when being lackadaisical is understandable it’s when you’re two goals up, clearly a lock for top spot. This was, after all, the only dead rubber of the Champions League’s 18 Matchday 8 games.
Having said that, Gyokeres toiled in a fashion, scoring one smartly early on and providing a ferocious off ball screen for Havertz’s goal, his time in north London so far perhaps typified when Gabriel Martinelli stole in on the goal line to deny him what might have been a second. It’s rarely an egregiously bad day when a player gets over two non-penalty xG, even if he only scores one, but this was one of many facets of the game that should have come with the caveat “be careful when merging Champions League and Premier League data”.
TruMedia
So what was the point of being at the Emirates Stadium on one of those all hands on the desk nights? Well perhaps what we’ve witnessed here is a particular form of history that should at least place Arsenal in a fairly elite club. In the old days of six team groups between 1993 and 2023, 13 teams managed to go six from six, only two of whom would then go on to win the whole thing. Even if you set aside the very obvious two more games thing, logic would dictate that it should be quite a bit harder to get eight from eight than six from six.
Assume that most of those teams to have gone 100% through the old group stages were Pot One teams and the league phase has become that bit more difficult for the best of the best, who must now play two of their top seeded counterparts. To get to perfection in the league phase, Arsenal had to overcome Bayern Munich, potentially their closest rivals to win the tournament come the end of the season, Inter and Atletico Madrid. Compare that to the last team to go 6-0-0; Manchester City had to get past a then-faltering RB Leipzig, Young Boys and Red Star. Even the kindest draw in the league phase throws up a lot more challenges than that.
Two years into this competition, where so many teams have so much to play for right the way to the death, you feel like a perfect record will be a rare achievement. There will be too many occasions like last year where the team on seven from seven have nothing to play for and PSV Eindhoven have a play off spot to wrap up or a top eight berth to compete for. For now all we can really go on are vibes and guesstimates.
Whether it’s an historic achievement or not is something we can circle back to a decade or so hence. In the meantime it’s clearly something for Arsenal to take pride in. “I’m very proud of all the players and the run that we had in this first stage of the competition,” said Mikel Arteta. “It’s very difficult to win eight games in a row in the Champions League, and you can see what happened with all the teams, so we really need to acknowledge that.
“At the end that shows that we can consistently perform at this level and if it’s the first time it means how difficult it is to do it, so the players need to acknowledge that and feel even more conviction about what we’re able to do.”
What it doesn’t mean is much for a team with Arsenal’s aspirations. It’s rather like the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, a comparison that Areta was downright baffled by in his post match press conference. Still 8-0-0 scans better onto 73-9 than he might have realised. Both don’t mean a thing without a ring.
The record of Spartak Moscow’s 1995-96 side and the Paris Saint-Germain outfit of a year earlier would be too obscure for all but the most obtuse of pub quizzes. Given that only Bayern Munich in 2019-20 and Real Madrid in 2023-24 went on to win the Champions League after sweeping their group, it’s hard to make the case that such an achievement tells you much beyond the quality of those teams in the early season. No wonder Arteta was keen to brush the record aside.
“That’s it, now the competition stops, we have a period of reflection as to what we’ve done, we’re going to start to prepare when we know our next opponent, what is next, and that’s it.”
Winning their eight league games makes Arsenal a curio. Winning the title gives a historical sheen to what they’ve achieved in the league phase.
