Can Mikel Arteta’s side stay perfect in the UEFA Champions League? We look ahead to Tuesday’s clash with our Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid prediction and preview.
Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid: The Key Stats
Arsenal claimed all three points against Atlético Madrid in a convincing 58% of pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer.
Atlético have never won away to an English side in the group/league phase of the Champions League.
Arsenal are one of only two teams yet to concede a goal in this season’s competition.
High-flying Arsenal will be bidding for a third win in as many UEFA Champions League games this season when they welcome Atlético Madrid to the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s side will head into Tuesday’s clash full of confidence after continuing to set the pace at the Premier League summit with Saturday’s 1-0 win over Fulham. Leandro Trossard‘s second-half finish proved the difference at Craven Cottage.
Arsenal opened their European campaign with back-to-back 2-0 wins over Athletic Club and Olympiakos, though the visit of Atlético will likely prove their toughest test of the 2025-26 competition so far.
However, Diego Simeone’s side have only won one of their last nine matches against English sides in European competition (D2 L6). That lone victory came in a 1-0 win against Manchester United in the second leg of a last-16 tie in this competition in March 2022.
Atlético have also never won away at an English side in the group/league phase of the Champions League. They have managed two draws and suffered three defeats in such games, including a 4-0 hammering in London by Chelsea in October 2009.
Overturning that record against Arteta’s in-form side will be a difficult task, considering Arsenal – along with Inter – are one of only two teams yet to concede in the competition in 2025-26.
Arsenal also rank first for xG against (0.85) in the Champions League this term. They have held their opponents to under one xG in seven of their 10 league-phase matches since the start of last season, having conceded just 0.35 against Athletic Club and 0.5 versus Olympiakos.
Arsenal Defence in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League
Their strong defensive record has been helped by remarkable strength in depth at the back. Myles Lewis-Skelly (69.1%) and Gabriel Magalhães (69.8%) have the highest duel success rate in the Champions League since the start of last season among players to have contested at least 50.
Lewis-Skelly is yet to start a Premier League game this season, so strong is Arteta’s squad, with Riccardo Calafiori and Jürrien Timber seemingly the preferred options at full-back.
It remains to be seen on Tuesday which full-back will start on the right behind Bukayo Saka, who has been directly involved in 17 goals in 19 appearances in the Champions League (11 goals, six assists).
Bukayo Saka UEFA Champions League Goals and Assists
Since Saka’s debut in the competition in September 2023, the Arsenal forward (89) has the second-best minutes per goal involvement ratio of any winger to play more than 500 minutes, only behind Barcelona’s Raphinha (69).
Simeone has his own attacking star to call upon, though. Julián Alvarez has scored 13 goals in 11 Champions League outings since the start of the 2023-24 season. That may be down to a superior quality of finishing, given he has exceeded his xG total by the biggest margin in the competition (+7.6 – 13 goals from 5.4 expected goals) in the same period.
Alvarez scored from the penalty spot as Atlético thumped Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 in their last European outing, having not featured due to injury in their dramatic 3-2 defeat at Liverpool on MD1.
Atlético Madrid 5-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Simeone will not be expected to set up in such a free-flowing attacking style on Tuesday, and will likely be reliant on Conor Gallagher and Marcos Llorente to stem the flow of Arsenal attacks through the middle.
Gallagher has averaged 2.6 interceptions per 90 for Atlético in this competition, which is the highest of any player with 10+ appearances since the start of last season. Indeed, no player has made more interceptions than Gallagher’s seven this campaign.
The Spanish side still have the quality to unpick Arsenal’s resilient defence. They are the top-ranked team in the 2025-26 edition for passes breaking the opposition’s defensive line (22).
That number is aided by the 14 that Atlético made in their thrashing of Eintracht, which is the most by a team in a single game in this season’s Champions League.
There should be no change in team news for Arsenal, who will again be without Martin Ødegaard, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, while midfielder Johnny Cardoso is the only known absentee for the visitors.
Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid Head-to-Head
This pair have only faced off twice in Europe, with Atlético eliminating Arsenal from the 2017-18 Europa League semi-finals with a 2-1 aggregate victory across two legs.
Simeone’s side managed a 1-1 draw at the Emirates, despite Šime Vrsaljko being sent off after 10 minutes. Diego Costa then scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 return win.
Arteta may not be too concerned about that, given Arsenal have won each of their last six games against Spanish teams and beaten four different opponents in this run (Real Madrid x2, Sevilla x2, Girona and Athletic Club).
This is already the longest winning run by a team against Spanish opposition in Champions League history, and Arsenal will be out to make it seven in midweek.
Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid Prediction
The Opta supercomputer struggled to look past a home win as Atlético were afforded just a 19.3% chance of victory in 10,000 pre-match simulations.
A draw was rated more likely at 22.7%, while Arsenal’s 58.0% likelihood of claiming all three points made up for a sizeable chunk of the data-led outcomes.
Arsenal vs Atletico Madrid Prediction
Arsenal vs Atlético Madrid Predicted Lineups
Arsenal: David Raya, Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberechi Eze, Martín Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Viktor Gyökeres.
Head coach: Mike Arteta
Atlético Madrid: Jan Oblak, Marcos Llorente, Robin Le Normand, Clément Lenglet, Matteo Ruggeri, Giuliano Simeone, Conor Gallagher, Pablo Barrios, Giacomo Raspadori, Antoine Griezmann, Julián Alvarez.
Head coach: Diego Simeone
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 10,000 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 Tuesday in London, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
UEFA Champions League Stats Opta
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