Arsenal are the overwhelming favourites with the Opta supercomputer when they visit Belgium in the Champions League on Wednesday. Look ahead to the game at Jan Breydel Stadium with our Club Brugge vs Arsenal prediction and preview.
Club Brugge vs Arsenal: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer ranks Arsenal as the overwhelming favourites, giving them a win probability of 66.9% to Club Brugge’s 14.1%.
The Gunners have won their last nine Champions League group/league phase matches.
Only Barcelona have conceded more goals than Brugge in the Champions League this calendar year.
Arsenal can emulate a feat achieved only once by an English side if they return to winning ways against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Gunners visit Jan Breydel Stadium on the back of a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday, but have won all five of their Champions League contests this season to sit top of the standings.
Mikel Arteta’s side have racked up nine straight group/league phase wins in the Champions League, scoring 27 goals and conceding just three. Liverpool are the only English team to have previously won 10 group games in a row, winning 12 between September 2022 and January 2025 (12).
Indeed, in European Cup history, only four English teams have won their first six games of a campaign – Manchester United in 1965-66, Leeds United in 1969-70, Liverpool in both 2021-22 and 2024-25, and Manchester City in 2023-24.
Club Brugge will fancy their chances of doing some damage, though, with the Belgian outfit scoring three-plus goals in each of their two home Champions League matches this season (4-1 vs Monaco, 3-3 vs Barcelona). In European Cup history, the only Belgian side to do so in three home games in a row was Anderlecht between December 1967 and September 1972 (4).
However, they have shipped 24 Champions League goals from 11 games in 2025, with only Barcelona (27 in 13 games) conceding more. They have also faced the joint-most shots on target (73) and the most expected goals against (23.5) of any side.
Arsenal have won six of their last seven away games in the Champions League (L1), including both in the current campaign without conceding a goal (2-0 vs Athletic Club and 3-0 vs Slavia Prague). Only once previously have the Gunners won their first three away games in a single edition of the European Cup/Champions League, doing so in 2005-06.
A stoic defence has been pivotal to their form, with Arsenal giving up an xG of just 2.59 in the competition this season. That represents the smallest of any side, while they have faced just nine shots on target, also the fewest of any side. Arsenal have also given away just five big chances, two fewer than any other team.
Arsenal xG against Champions League 2025-26
Gabriel Martinelli has enjoyed a fine European campaign, with the Brazilian winger scoring in all four of his Champions League appearances this season. No Arsenal player has ever scored in five Champions League games in a row, while in major European competition only two players have scored in more consecutively, Ian Wright in the 1994-95 Cup Winners’ Cup (8) and Thierry Henry in the 1999-00 UEFA Cup (6).
Arsenal will want to keep an eye on former Wolves loanee Carlos Forbs. All four of his goals and assists in the Champions League this season have come on home soil for Club Brugge (two goals, two assists), assisting in both home games. Only three players have assisted in their first three home Champions League appearances – Zvonimir Boban (1993-94, Milan), Marian Hristov (1998, Kaiserslautern) and Bukayo Saka (2023, Arsenal).
Arteta still has concerns at centre-back for this fixture with Gabriel Magalhaes and Cristhian Mosquera definitely out, though William Saliba could return. Leandro Trossard is also a doubt after seemingly suffering a recurrence of a calf injury against Villa.
Brugge – who were beaten 3-2 by Sint-Truiden on Saturday in the Belgian Pro League – have injury issues of their own, with Lynnt Audoor and Ludovit Reis among those unavailable.
Club Brugge vs Arsenal Head-to-Head
Club Brugge have come up against 12 different English teams in European competition, but this fixture will mark their first against Arsenal.
The Belgian outfit have won just one of their previous 18 encounters against English opponents (D3 L14), though that did come in the Champions League – a 1-0 triumph over Aston Villa in November 2024.
You have to go back to October 1981 to find the last time Arsenal were beaten by a Belgian side, a 1-0 loss to KFC Winterslag – now known as KRC Genk – in the UEFA Cup, with the Gunners winning seven and drawing two of nine such contests since. They are unbeaten in four away matches against Belgian teams (W3, D1) since that aforementioned defeat.
Club Brugge vs Arsenal Prediction
Arsenal are, unsurprisingly, the overwhelming favourites for victory in this contest, with the Opta supercomputer rating their chances of victory at a whopping 66.9%.
By contrast, Club Brugge have a win probability of just 14.1%, with the draw rated a 19% chance.
In terms of the competition overall, Arsenal are predicted to finish top of the league phase, and are currently the team seen as the most likely to win the tournament overall (22.3%).
Brugge, though, are battling just to make the play-off round, with their chances of doing so sitting at 39.2%.
Club Brugge v Arsenal Opta prediction
Club Brugge vs Arsenal Predicted Lineups
Club Brugge: Dani van den Heuvel, Hugo Siquet, Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Joaquin Seys, Aleksandar Stankovic, Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken, Carlos Forbs, Christos Tzolis, Nicolò Tresoldi.
Head Coach: Nicky Hayen
Arsenal: David Raya, Ben White, Jurriën Timber, Piero Hincapié, Riccardo Calafiori, Christian Nørgaard, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino.
Head Coach: Mikel Arteta
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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