Arsenal Hailed as the Best Team in the World — But Are They Better Than Bayern Munich?

Save the date: November 26 at the Emirates Stadium in London. Arsenal will host Bayern Munich in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Both teams have perfect records in Europe so far this season — with four wins out of four — while Bayern have won 16 games in a row in all competitions.

Arsenal have tasted defeat just once this season — a 1–0 loss away at Liverpool in the Premier League in November — but the Gunners have won 12 of 13 matches since then, including eight in a row without conceding a single goal.

After the Gunners won 3–0 away at Slavia Prague on Tuesday night — a result that saw Mikel Arteta enhance his Champions League win rate to 64.29% — social media was full of fans proclaiming that Arsenal were the best club team in the world right now.

Fans hail Arsenal as the best team in the world

Looking ahead to this month’s clash with Bayern, one Gunners fan tweeted: “GAME OF THE SEASON… Can Arsenal prove we are the best team in the world?”

Another Arsenal fan claimed that Mikel Arteta’s side are both “the best build-up team in the world” and “the best defensive team in the world.”

A third added: “I just wanna remind you all that Arsenal is currently the best team in the world.”

But it was not exclusively Arsenal supporters making that claim. A Liverpool fan posted: “Arsenal is the best team in the world at the moment. Liverpool is 2nd best. We need an Isak at 100% level and a strong back four to compete against them. So far we are leaking way too many simple goals.”

Perfect Bayern Munich have beaten European and world champions this season

But there is also a pretty strong case to make for Bayern Munich being the world’s top club right now. Bayern beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 on Tuesday night to maintain their perfect start to the 2025/26 season. Vincent Kompany’s men now have 16 wins from 16 games.

They have won their opening nine Bundesliga matches by an aggregate score of 33–4, while their Champions League results include victories over reigning FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea and now European kings PSG.

Harry Kane is in the form of his life

Whether or not they are the best team in the world right now, Bayern Munich certainly have one of the best central strikers on the planet in Harry Kane.

Kane has 22 goals in 16 games for Bayern this season — scoring at a rate marginally higher than Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, who is set to join him in the Premier League 100 Club.

The England captain has scored 39.29% of Bayern’s 56 goals this season, while Luis Diaz leads the supporting cast with 10 strikes.

Arsenal have scored significantly fewer goals than Bayern. The Gunners have netted 33 times in their first 16 matches, with no player yet in double figures. Viktor Gyokeres and Bukayo Saka currently lead Arsenal’s scoring charts with six and five respectively.

Arsenal boast Europe’s best defensive record

Bayern Munich may have scored 23 more goals than Arsenal after 16 games this season, but Mikel Arteta’s men have the best defensive record in Europe by some distance.

The Gunners — thanks in no small part to William Saliba, who was recently rated as the most valuable centre-back in the world — have conceded just three goals in their first 16 games across all competitions. That equates to just 0.1875 per game on average. Bayern have conceded 11 so far, at a rate of 0.6875 per match.

Arsenal have also conceded the fewest goals of any team in Europe’s top five leagues — three in 10 Premier League fixtures. The only other side to concede fewer than five goals in a major European division so far this season is Bayern, who have let in four in nine games.

What managers Vincent Kompany and Mikel Arteta have said

Bayern boss Vincent Kompany has tried to keep his players grounded despite their perfect start. He said after the win over PSG: “When there is hype, I tell my players, please don’t believe it — you’re not that good. But if you have a bad performance, you’re not that bad either. We have won 16 and tomorrow it’s back to zero.”

That humility echoes Mikel Arteta’s own approach at Arsenal, where high standards are matched by an obsession with consistency. Asked recently about Arsenal being Premier League title favourites, Arteta replied: “The only thing that I embrace is when I see the team, the energy, the temperature, the commitment and the quality that they can deliver, that it gives me that conviction that we can go all the way.

“But that’s it, that’s just a feeling. Then the next day you have to prove it, the next training session you have to prove it and nothing else — and we cannot be busy thinking about those topics.”

Who would win right now — Arsenal or Bayern?

It’s a question that football fans across Europe are starting to ask seriously — especially given Arsenal’s history against the German giants.

In 14 previous Champions League meetings, Arsenal have beaten Bayern Munich just three times, drawing three and losing eight. Between 2015 and 2017, the fixture became something of a nightmare for the Gunners, with Bayern recording three 5–1 wins in a row to sum up the gulf in class during that era.

Even last season, Bayern edged Arsenal out on aggregate in the quarter-finals — winning 1–0 in Munich after a 2–2 draw in London.

But things feel very different under Mikel Arteta’s class of 2025/26. Arsenal’s defensive numbers are historic, while Bayern’s attack — led by Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise — is scoring at nearly 3.5 goals per game.

Arsenal’s advantage lies in control and structure: Declan Rice anchors midfield superbly, and their set-piece dominance under coach Nicolas Jover continues to unsettle opponents. Bayern, meanwhile, thrive in transitions and have rediscovered their pressing intensity under Vincent Kompany.

When the two sides meet later this month, it should be the best defence in Europe against the most ruthless attack — and perhaps even a preview of this season’s Champions League final.

Where would Bayern Munich finish in the Premier League?

We asked this question to former Bayern Munich midfielder Didi Hamann earlier this week in a wide-ranging interview. Hamann told FootballBlog.co.uk: “Well, the way they’re going at the moment, I’d say they’re probably second or third, because at the moment they’re playing really well.

“They blow teams away. They pretty much outplayed Chelsea in the Champions League, which gave you an indication of where they are. Would they be ahead of Arsenal at the moment? Probably not. But the way they’re going at the moment, I think they would certainly be the closest pursuer to Arsenal in the Premier League.”