Arsenal have played in Europe’s premier club competition in 24 completed seasons, and 2026-27 makes 25. It begins away to Napoli, which is why Napoli vs Arsenal odds are the first Arsenal market of the new campaign for most punters.
Five players did more than anyone else to build the record behind those prices. The figures below cover the European Cup and Champions League, where roughly three quarters of Arsenal’s continental football has been played since 1998, and include qualifying-round ties, which Arsenal contested in seven of those seasons between 2006-07 and 2014-15.
Thierry Henry, 78 appearances and 35 goals
Henry leads both lists, and not narrowly. He played 78 European Cup and Champions League matches for Arsenal and scored 35 goals, which is 11 more appearances and 17 more goals than the man behind him.
His eight full campaigns ran from 1999-2000 to 2006-07, and Arsenal won 39 of the 85 matches they played across them; the 78th appearance came later still, 45 minutes off the bench in the 4-0 defeat at AC Milan in February 2012, on loan back from New York.
He captained and started the 2006 final in Paris, lost 2-1 to Barcelona. Counting the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup run to the final in Copenhagen, his Arsenal record across all European competition reaches 86 appearances and 42 goals.
Theo Walcott, 67 appearances and 18 goals
Walcott is second on 67 appearances and 18 goals, spread across 11 straight campaigns from 2006-07 to 2016-17. Arsenal played 110 European Cup and Champions League matches in that stretch and won 60 of them, reaching the semi-finals once and the quarter-finals twice. His best European season came late, four goals in six appearances in 2016-17. Add his 2017-18 Europa League games and he finished with 72 appearances and 21 goals in European competition for Arsenal.
Kolo Toure, 65 appearances and two goals
Toure sits third on 65 appearances across seven campaigns between 2002-03 and 2008-09, a period in which Arsenal won 39 of 79 matches. His two goals, one in 2004-05 and one in 2005-06, make him the outlier in this group, but the defensive numbers he was part of matter more. The 2005-06 run to the final included ten consecutive matches without conceding a goal, and Toure made 12 appearances in that campaign, more than in any other season.
Freddie Ljungberg, 65 appearances and 14 goals
Ljungberg matches Toure on 65 appearances and adds 14 goals, scored in every one of his eight European campaigns from 1999-2000 to 2006-07. Arsenal took 39 wins from 85 matches in those years. He also played eight times and scored once in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup, which lifts his full Arsenal European record to 73 appearances and 15 goals.
Robert Pires, 63 appearances and 11 goals
Pires completes the five with 63 appearances and 11 goals in six campaigns, 2000-01 to 2005-06, during which Arsenal won 32 of 69 matches. Four of those goals came in 2003-04, his best European return. His last act for the club was the 2006 final, where he started and was withdrawn after 18 minutes so Manuel Almunia could replace the sent-off Jens Lehmann. He never played for Arsenal again.
What none of the five managed
Between them these players made 338 European Cup and Champions League appearances for Arsenal and won nothing in the competition. Arsenal have reached two finals, in 2006 and 2026, and lost both. The second was the closer miss, an unbeaten campaign of 11 wins and four draws from 15 matches that still ended without the trophy. That near miss is the main reason Arsenal are priced where they are among the Champions League favourites again.
How far away the current squad is
Bukayo Saka is the clearest measure of the gap. He has 29 European Cup and Champions League appearances for Arsenal and 13 goals, which already puts him sixth on the club’s scoring list in the competition, and 54 appearances with 18 goals once his Europa League football is included. He would still need another 35 Champions League matches to pass Pires. The 2026-27 league phase runs to eight games, starting in Naples.
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