Arsenal may have fallen short of the big prize in this season’s Champions League campaign, but overall, reaching the last eight in the team’s first year back in Europe’s elite competition has to go down as a success.

Nothing to be worried about in 2024/25

Furthermore, was there anything from Arsenal’s 2023/24 Champions League campaign that would have fans worried about an assault on the big prize in the 2024/25 season? The answer would have to be no.

The Gunners were not far from defeating Bayern Munich in the last eight. And Munich were not far off winning their semi-final against Real Madrid, who are now the betting favourites to win the trophy this year for a record 15th time. In 90 minutes match betting to win the final, Madrid are 6/10, with Dortmund at 4/1 and the draw at 3/1. In the latest Champions League title odds to lift the trophy, Real Madrid are 3/10, and Dortmund is 12/5. As betting favourites, Los Blancos will be the obvious call for most football betting tips on where the trophy will end up this season.

To back up the point of Arsenal having nothing to fear next season, the Gunners ran Bayern Munich close in the quarter-final. Mikel Arteta’s team were competitive across the two legs, and everyone knows that it was fine margins that cost Arsenal the tie.

The same Bayern Munich team were only a costly goalkeeping error away from reaching the final, where they would have been favourites against Borussia Dortmund. So if the Bavarians can go so close, then why not Arsenal?

Champions League experience is vital

As for Real Madrid, they played second fiddle to Manchester City in the betting all season. The Light Blues should have defeated Madrid at the Etihad in the 2nd leg of their quarter-final. They were the better team on the night and across the two ties.

The difference was that Madrid showed their Champions League experience by digging in and making it a 50/50 tie by taking it to penalties.

There was no stand-out team, and there is no reason why Arsenal can’t go further in the competition in the 2024/25 season.

Squads will all be strengthened

Moving forward, it’s obvious that all the big clubs will be improving their squads over the summer. But this also includes Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta has years of experience seeing how Pep Guardiola went about building a squad capable of competing in both the Premier League and the Champions League and is already well into the process of replicating that.

Furthermore, as Bayern Munich showed with their big money purchase last summer, splashing the cash doesn’t always improve your chances of winning. Marquee signings might look great to fans and send out a message to your rivals. But they don’t always guarantee success.

The teams likely to challenge Arsenal next season all have their flaws. Real Madrid might be snapping up young talent, but they look set to go into next season’s competition without the Champions League experience of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.

As for Manchester City, Kevin de Bruyne is getting older and has shown signs of picking up more injuries. Okay, City will still be the team to beat. But as Arsenal have shown in recent months, the gap is getting smaller.