Arsenal return to Champions League with unwanted status of biggest failures

Arsenal make their long-awaited return to Champions League football tonight as they host PSV Eindhoven at the Emirates; the Gunners will be hoping for a fresh start after decades of underachievement against the continent’s elite.

Over the course of a long and illustrious history, the club has entered European competition on 37 occasions and played 336 games. The European Cup/Champions League accounts for 21 of those entries and 201 of the games.

So, what do they have to show for all that? Very little in truth.

Despite winning 13 English league titles (third most) and a record 14 FA Cups, Arsenal have only the 1993/94 Cup Winners’ Cup and 1969/70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup to their name in Europe. Both tournaments are now defunct and the latter is not recognised by UEFA.

This peculiarly leaves Arsenal behind both arch-rivals Spurs and Europa Conference League champions West Ham in the honours list among English sides and outside the elite to have won the famous ‘Big Ears’ trophy.

There is no doubt that the north Londoners are the biggest club to have never won the trophy, and they have only one final and a semi-final to show for their many efforts. It is a serious blot on an otherwise exemplary CV.

Nineteen of the 21 seats at European football’s top table came consecutively under Arsene Wenger, the best run of any English club and behind only 14-time winners Real Madrid overall.

Despite being an ever-present at the table, Arsenal could never find their way to the top of it, even when they had the best, or close to the best, team in Europe.

Wenger’s 1998 double-winning side is perhaps underrated due to the Invincibles but many would suggest that it was the stronger side with its all-English ‘Famous Five’ being supplemented further forward by the French World Cup-winning midfield, the Dutch brilliance of Overmars/Bergkamp and the electric Nicolas Anelka up top, who was then succeeded by fellow Monaco graduate Thierry Henry when he left for Real Madrid in 1999.

READ: Top 10 Premier League teams of all time

But back-to-back group stage exits in 1998/99 and 1999/2000 came regardless, perhaps aided by the club’s decision to hold their home games at Wembley due to Highbury’s smaller capacity. Dynamo Kiev, Lens and Fiorentina all pipped the Gunners to qualification spots.

In 2000, a third-placed finish led to Arsenal falling into the UEFA Cup, where they made a final but lost to Galatasaray on penalties, just as they did in the 1980 Cup Winners’ Cup to Valencia. 1995 also saw further heartbreak in that old competition, this time to Real Zaragoza and a 45-yard lob of David Seaman by Nayim (he walked so Ronaldinho could run).

Away goals cost them in the quarter-finals the following season to Valencia, but again it would be group-stage exits in the two years that came after, albeit at the second stage as UEFA expanded the tournament in the pre-round-of-16 days.

That this came despite beating 2002 finalists Bayer Leverkusen and stacked Juventus and Roma sides made it all the more difficult to take. Draws regularly cost Wenger’s side, who struggled to score the goals they banged in with ease on Premier League weekends.

The one that got away is undoubtedly 2003/2004, which was the last time it was safe to say Arsenal were the best side in Europe, having gone unbeaten at home and smashed Inter Milan 5-1 in the San Siro (they remain the only side to beat both Milan sides in the famous stadium).

A treble run was in place but was shattered in the space of four days by Manchester United in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the Champions League, both at the quarter-final stage and both against sides they had left behind in the league.

An away goal from Robert Pires at Stamford Bridge had put the Gunners in a fantastic position heading into the second leg at home, where they conspired to throw away a 1-0 lead, eventually losing 2-1 and giving Wayne Bridge a night to remember.

The club’s peak would then give away to decline with no titles or title challenges in the next five years but a first and only Champions League final (the first for any London side too) which was reached via defeats of Real Madrid (that Henry goal), Juventus (that Fabregas performance), and Villarreal (that Lehmann penalty save).

The German keeper kept 10 consecutive clean sheets en route but was then sent off in the final, which might sum up Arsenal’s luck in Europe. Henrik Larsson’s rescue act denied the club their greatest day and they haven’t been close since.

Liverpool knocked them out in 2007/08 in a pulsating quarter final while United made light work of them in the semis a year later. If that was bad, worse was to come as Barcelona and Bayern Munich began to take turns at tormenting Wenger and his now fading forces, who soon began to be financially out-muscled even more following the funding of the new stadium and subsequent move.

Lionel Messi got four against them in the 2010 quarter-final second leg, which remains the last time Arsenal competed in the last eight. Seven straight last-16 exits followed, two to Barca, three to Bayern and one to Milan and Monaco.

There were numerous harrowing losses, notably 4-0 to Milan in 2012, 3-1 at home to Monaco in 2015 and 10-2 on aggregate to Bayern in 2017, a second-leg 5-1 loss being their last Champions League outing and the true end point of Wenger, even if he kicked on for one more sorry season, which ended with a fifth-place finish.

It has been a long six years in exile for everyone connected to the club, but it has been a period that has seen great change and transition at every level from the board to the playing squad. There is an alignment between Mikel Arteta and Edu that has not been seen since the days of Wenger and David Dein (his exit in 2007 also contributed to the Gunners’ decline).

His three runs in the Europa League have seen more embarrassing exits, with Olympiacos, Villarreal (and Unai Emery) and Sporting all beating his side, albeit last season the focus was on the league.

The former club captain’s only experience in the Champions League comes as Pep Guardiola’s assistant and that is still more than the vast majority of his squad, with 2021 winners Jorginho and Kai Havertz, ex-City duo Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko and former Atletico player Thomas Partey (who will miss the opening few games) the only ones with any sizeable experience.

While that may sound like a negative, it is largely due to the young and fresh nature of the squad, with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba all being pillars of positive change and Declan Rice seemingly ready to take on the best for club as he has with country.

A kind group draw should help the club get over any teething issues upon return, with Sevilla probably hoping for a third-placed finish and a return to their homeland of the Europa League, while Lens rather depressingly lost their best player to Saudi Arabia.

As for tonight’s opposition, PSV (who notably beat the Gunners in the 2007 last 16), they are nothing to write home about, particularly considering Ruud van Nistelrooy left as manager in the summer and they’ve just sold Ibrahim Sangare to Nottingham Forest.

After their best league campaign and points tally since the Invincibles vintage last season, the return to the Champions League offers the Gunners and Arteta another opportunity to showcase their revival as a big club, and possibly make a run at landing that elusive first success. It all starts again tonight.