Our crushing victory over Atletico Madrid was a milestone triumph at Emirates Stadium as we celebrated our 100th win in the Champions League.
Goals from Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli and a double from Viktor Gyokeres sealed a century of victories since our very first back in 1998 against Panathinaikos.
Following on from our landmark win, we've taken a look back at the numbers behind the century of successes.
100 and counting
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We became just the seventh side to reach 100 victories in the competition since its rebrand in 1992. Real Madrid top the charts with 201, with Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea and Juventus also reaching three figures.
Our favourite opponents have been Olympiacos, who we have beaten five times across the years, including a [2-0 success over the Greek side in the 2025/26 League Phase.](https://www.arsenal.com/news/highlights-arsenal-2-0-olympiacos)
The victory over Atletico Madrid extended our run of wins over Spanish opposition to seven in a row. Indeed, victories over La Liga opponents are our favourite kind in the Champions League, with 16 over the years. Matches against sides from France and Germany have also been profitable:
Wins against sides from other nations
Nation
Games
Wins
Spain
34
16
France
22
11
Germany
30
11
Italy
22
9
Greece
15
8
Netherlands
16
6
Portugal
11
6
Late wins and lightning starts
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Our 100 victories in the Champions League have come in all shapes and sizes since our first back in 1998. Some have been dramatic, and some have been sizable.
We've won six matches in the 90th minute or later during our time in the continent's top competition, the first coming back in 2000 when Martin Keown completed a dramatic turnaround in stoppage time to defeat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2.
Our latest winning goal in the competition came last season, when Gabriel Martinelli raced through to slot past Thibaut Courtois and round off a 2-1 win against Real Madrid, which completed a 5-1 aggregate scoreline.
Latest winners in our UCL history
Player
Game
Minute
Gabriel Martinelli
Real Madrid 1-2 Arsenal
92:29
Aaron Ramsey
Marseille 0-1 Arsenal
91:45
Dennis Bergkamp
Arsenal 2-1 FC Thun
91:02
Martin Keown
Arsenal 3-2 Shakhtar Donetsk
91:00
Lukas Podolski
Anderlecht 1-2 Arsenal
90:07
Ashley Cole
Arsenal 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv
89:04
On the flip side, we've made a host of electric starts to ensure we take home the victory from the get-go. In October 2002, Gilberto scored the fastest goal in Champions League history at the time, netting just 20.07 seconds in our 4-0 rout of PSV Eindhoven. The goal is now currently the third fastest, with Roy Makaay's goal after just 10.12 seconds for Bayern against Real Madrid in 2007 the quickest.
We've netted one other time within the first 60 seconds of a Champions League match and gone on to win - Jack Wilshere's fine goal against Marseille in 2013 came after just 30 seconds. We would go on to win the contest 2-0.
Our biggest win came in the 2007/08 season, when we blew away Slavia Prague with a 7-0 demolition at Emirates Stadium. Last season's 7-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven, which saw us become the first side in the tournament's history to score seven goals away from home in the knockout stages, slots in at second place.
Our biggest wins in UCL History
Season
Game
2007/08
Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague
2024/25
PSV Eindhoven 1-7 Arsenal
2023/24
Arsenal 6-0 Lens
2016/17
Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets
2010/11
Arsenal 6-0 Braga
arteta's fine record
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In 2022/23, Mikel Arteta helped steer us back into the Champions League for the first time since 2016/17. Since returning to the tournament in 2023/24, we've been one of the dominant forces around.
In 27 matches played under Mikel in the UCL, we've won 17 times, with only PSG and Real Madrid winning more matches. We've won every home group stage match under our current manager, which has cemented Mikel's place amongst some of the managers with the best win percentage in Champions League history.
Managers with best UCL win % (min 20 games)
Manager
Games
Wins
Win %
Hansi Flick
35
27
77.1%
Josef Heynckes
47
32
68.1%
Luis Enrique
65
43
66.2%
Mikel Arteta
27
17
63%
Pep Guardiola
184
114
62%
Under Mikel, we've reached the quarter-finals in 2023/24 and the semi-finals in 2024/25. In last season's competition, we produced more wins than in any other campaign in the continental tournament, one more than in 2005/06 when we reached the final in Paris:
Most wins in our UCL seasons
Season
Round reached
Games
Wins
2024/25
Semi-final
14
9
2005/06
Final
13
8
2000/01
Quarter-final
14
7
2023/24
Quarter-final
10
5
2014/15
Round of 16
8
5
We've currently won three out of three in the 2025/26 league phase, putting us in contention for automatic qualification to the round of 16. The last time we won our first three matches of the opening phase was in 2010/11, when we defeated Braga, Partizan Belgrade, and Shakhtar Donetsk. Our best start to a group phase came in 2005/06 when we won our first five matches.
goalscorers and winners
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It might come as no surprise to see our all-time record goalscorer, Thierry Henry, has scored the highest number of goals in games that we've won. His first goal in a victory came in a 3-1 win over AIK Solna from Sweden in 1999, with his final goal in the competition for us coming in a 2-0 victory over Porto in September 2006.
In total, Thierry scored 28 goals in matches we won and collected 33 victories in his Arsenal career, the highest of any of our players. Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Cesc Fabregas all have 28 wins under their belts from their time at the club.
Bukayo Saka is the highest current player in the total goals scored in winning matches category. Our number 7 has nine goals to his name in victories, with the latest coming in a 2-0 win over Olympiacos.
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