Jermaine Pennant predicts what’d happen if Liverpool and Arsenal were to meet in Champions League
Jermaine Pennant believes that Liverpool would get the better of Arsenal if the two teams were to face each other in the Champions League knockout rounds.
The Reds took a massive step towards finishing in the top eight of the league phase and advancing directly to the round of 16 after beating Marseille 3-0 on Wednesday night, and a win at home to Qarabag next week would ensure a fourth-placed finish at a minimum.
The Gunners have no such mental arithmetic to ponder on the final league phase matchday as they’re already guaranteed to come first or second, and they need only a draw at home to bottom club Kairat Almaty to clinch top spot for certain.
Pennant: Liverpool would beat Arsenal in Champions League knockout tie
Arsenal are being talked up in some quarters as one of the big favourites to win the Champions League this season, but Pennant insists he’d back Liverpool if the English rivals were to meet in European competition.
Speaking on talkSPORT, the former winger (who represented both clubs) said: “Liverpool are better in the Champions League. They’ve got the pedigree and the know-how, and I think they would do a lot better this season in the Champions League than they would in the Premier League.”
When asked if he thinks the Reds are the likelier of the two clubs to win the European tournament, he replied: “Yeah, I genuinely do, because Liverpool are six-time Champions League winners. They’ve got the pedigree; they know what it is to get there and win it. Over a two-legged game, I think Liverpool would beat Arsenal.
“I would say [Liverpool have] more chance of winning it than Arsenal, because they’ve won it six times. They’ve got the pedigree when it gets to that stage; they know how to get across [the line].
“Over a two-legged game, Liverpool go to the Emirates, stink it out, come back to Anfield. If they can get Anfield rocking on a Champions League night, it’s a horrible place to go. There’s something about Arsenal when they go to Anfield.”
When it was put to Pennant that Arsenal have a 100% record so far in the league phase, he retorted: “[Last season] Liverpool won every [league phase] game bar one, and then they played PSG who were 22nd [sic: 15th] and then went on to win it.
“Coming top in the Champions League at this stage means nothing. It’s when you go face-to-face over a two-legged period, that’s when it all counts.”
"#LFC have a better chance of winning it than Arsenal."
"Over two legs, Liverpool would beat them."
Jermaine Pennant explains why Liverpool have a "better chance" of winning the Champions League than Arsenal pic.twitter.com/E29cxx1s1j
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) January 22, 2026
Liverpool would relish facing Arsenal in the Champions League knockouts
Pennant makes a valid point about the respective clubs’ history in this competition, and the fallibility of a team’s finishing position in the league phase.
Coming top in January didn’t do Liverpool any good in the long run, and while the Reds have won the European Cup six times (and reached four other finals), Arsenal have yet to lift the trophy and have only been finalists once (v Barcelona in 2006).
The knockout rounds bracket is structured in such a way that, if both teams finish in their current positions, they wouldn’t be able to meet each other until the semi-finals, and the second leg would be at the Emirates Stadium. If that were to happen, imagine the weight of expectation that’d be on the Gunners to win the competition for the first time.
The two sides have already met twice in the Premier League this season, with Arne Slot’s men winning 1-0 at Anfield and drawing 0-0 at the Emirates. The psychology of a two-legged European tie would obviously differ from two standalone league games, but those results are still pertinent.
Arsenal deserve credit for maintaining a 100% record this deep into the league phase of the Champions League, along with leading the way in the English top flight, and it’s natural that they’ll be talked up as genuine contenders to win both competitions.
However, as Pennant says, Liverpool have a track record for coming alive in high-stakes European ties, and a semi-final against the Gunners in the spring would make for quite a frenzied atmosphere at Anfield!
You can watch Slot’s full post-Marseille press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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