We look ahead to Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League clash with our Slavia Prague vs Arsenal prediction and preview. The Gunners are the Opta supercomputer’s heavy favourites.
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer struggled to see anything other than an Arsenal win; the Gunners overcame Slavia Prague in a massive 69% of pre-match simulations.
Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 18 Champions League games (W13 D5), not including penalty shootouts.
Slavia Prague could match the longest winless streak in European Cup/Champions League history (23 games) if they fail to win here.
Mikel Arteta may need to bring Arsenal back down to earth when they visit Slavia Prague in Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League clash at Fortuna Arena.
Arsenal overcame Liverpool 1-0 on Sunday, securing their first Premier League win at Anfield in 14 years. Kai Havertz’s first-half strike proved the difference and moved the Gunners to the top of the table.
But Arsenal’s attention now turns back to Europe. They played out a 2-2 draw away at Bayern Munich in their last Champions League match, extending their unbeaten run to 18 games in the competition (W13 D5).
Bayern 2-2 Arsenal UEFA Champions League xG shot map
Bayern 2-2 Arsenal UEFA Champions League xG shot map
Although that unbeaten streak doesn’t include their penalty-shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain following a 1-1 draw after extra time in last season’s final, it still shows how strong Arteta’s squad is and how they can now challenge on all fronts for trophies.
Arsenal have kept 11 clean sheets and conceded only nine goals in their undefeated run, with David Raya at the forefront of their success. He has kept a clean sheet in 54% of his Champions League matches (21 in 39 starts) – the best ratio of any goalkeeper to start 25 games in the competition’s history.
Eberechi Eze has struggled to make an impact in the Premier League this season, but he has found joy on the European stage with goals in back-to-back games against Lille and Bayern.
Eze will now hope to become just the second Englishman for Arsenal to score in three straight European Cup/Champions League games. Ray Kennedy is the other to achieve the feat, managing a four-match scoring streak in 1971-72.
Martin Ødegaard has also been key. No player has made more defensive line-breaking passes (11), more line-breaking passes in the final third (45) or more line-breaking passes leading to a goal (4) than the Arsenal captain in the 2026-27 competition.
It is hard to see how Slavia stop their visitors here. Since winning their first game in the competition in 2007, they have not won any of their 22 Champions League matches that have followed (D8 L14).
The Opta supercomputer gives them little chance of victory – more on that below – and failure to win would see them equal the longest winless run in European Cup/Champions League history. That currently stands at 23 games, with AEK Athens (1989-2006) and FCSB (2006-2013) sharing the benchmark.
If Slavia are to get anything, it may be down to Emmanuel Ayaosi, who set up Pavel Kacor’s late equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Fenerbahçe last time out.
Fenerbahce 2-2 Slavia Prague Champions League xG shot map
Fenerbahce 2-2 Slavia Prague Champions League xG shot map
Ayaosi has attempted more dribbles (10), won more duels (18) and had more touches in the opposition box (21) than any other Slavia player in the Champions League this season.
In that draw with Fenerbahçe, captain Lukás Provod scored his first goal in major European competition since February 2021, ending a run of 29 games and 47 shots without success.
Provod may be 30 years old, but there is a youthful feel to Jindrich Trpisovsky’s side. Slavia’s starting XI against Fenerbahçe had an average age of 24 years and five days, their youngest in a Champions League game, and the second youngest by any side in the opening three rounds of this edition (after Shakhtar Donetsk – 23y 364d v PSV).
In terms of team news, Arsenal will remain without Bukayo Saka and William Saliba. Noni Madueke, Riccardo Calafiori, Christos Tzolis and Declan Rice all came through the Liverpool clash unscathed after doubts over their fitness.
For the hosts, Elias Pitak, Ivan Schranz, Hamidou Edge and Adonija Ouanda all remain out after missing Slavia’s 5-0 away victory over Jablonec in Sunday’s Czech First League encounter.
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal Head-to-Head
Arsenal have a strong record against Slavia, going unbeaten in five games against them (W3 D2).
Arteta’s side won their most recent meeting 3-0 in last season’s league phase. A Saka penalty opened the scoring before Mikel Merino’s second-half double at the Fortuna Arena in November last year.
Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal 2025-26 UCL
Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal 2025-26 UCL
In fact, Arsenal are unbeaten in all three away games against Slavia overall (W2 D1) and are yet to concede a goal (0-0 in 2007, 4-0 in 2021 and 3-0 in 2025).
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal Prediction
Owing to Slavia Prague’s poor record in Europe and Arsenal’s lengthy unbeaten run, it may be no surprise that the Opta supercomputer is favouring Arteta’s team.
Arsenal came out on top in a massive 69% of pre-match simulations, far ahead of Slavia’s meagre 13% chance of winning. The draw accounted for 18% of data-led sims.
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal Prediction - Opta
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal Prediction - Opta
Slavia Prague vs Arsenal Predicted Lineups
Team: Nazar Domchak, Ange N’Guessan, David Zima, Tomáš Holeš, Oskar Kubiak, Michal Sadílek, David Moses, Tomáš Vlček, Mubarak Suleiman, Emmanuel Ayaosi, Mojmír Chytil
Team: David Raya, Gabriel Magalhães, Ezri Konsa, Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White, Mikel Merino, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Martin Ødegaard, Max Dowman, Viktor Gyökeres
Ad 1 – Opta Live- v1
Ad 1 – Opta Live- v1
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 16,000 domestic football teams 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, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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