Former England striker Gary Lineker (Picture: YouTube) Gary Lineker insists Arsenal are ‘one of the favourites’ to win the Champions League but could be denied by Barcelona following the signing of Manchester City legend Rodri. Premier League champions Arsenal kick-started their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win over Serie A side Napoli on Wednesday. The Gunners enjoyed a memorable run to the final last season before suffering a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to back-to-back winners PSG. Lineker believes Arsenal are once again one of the leading contenders to become European champions after a productive summer and strong start to the new season. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. Mikel Arteta bolstered his title-winning squad with the signings of Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, England defender Ezri Konsa and Greece winger Christos Tzolis during the summer transfer window. Arsenal already look like favourites to retain their Premier League crown, with Manchester City the only other team to still boast a perfect record after three games. While Lineker expects Arsenal to go back-to-back in the Premier League, he believes they could be a ‘superstar’ short in the Champions League, where he expects Barcelona to thrive. PSG have won the last two Champions Leagues (Picture: Getty) Hansi Flick’s Spanish champions were minutes away from the Champions League final two years ago before reaching the quarter-finals last season. Barca, who are already three points clear of La Liga rivals Real Madrid, welcomed Ballon d’Or Rodri to the Nou Camp in the summer in a £65m deal from Man City. ‘Arsenal will be one of the favourites but I don’t think overall they’ve got quite the superstars that some of the other big guns in Europe have,’ Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast. Arsenal suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat (Picture: Getty) ‘I do think Barcelona might be quite tasty and take some beating this season now they’ve got Rodri in there as well in that crucial position.’ Ex-Man City defender Micah Richards has also questioned whether Arsenal have the attacking flair to go one better in the Champions League. Arteta tried to sign Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez in the summer but the Brazil icon stayed at Real Madrid while the Argentine striker failed to force his way out of Atletico Madrid. {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'It was beautiful': Arteta hails Arsenal's attack-to-defence display in win against Chelsea","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/07\/2593273995855020828\/480x270_MP4_2593273995855020828.mp4","description":"Arsenal came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium after Morgan Rogers stunned home fans into silence with a volleyed goal 77 seconds into the game.","duration":"T5M27S","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/07\/07\/111091359-0-image-a-53_1788761962819.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-07T07:17:08+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); ‘I’ve got no doubts about them in the Premier League but I’m not sure about Arsenal in the Champions League,’ Richards added. ‘If you go back to last season they were actually favour
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