Bayern vs Arsenal on Wednesday 21 October is the game most of us circled when the Matchday 3 fixtures came out. Arsenal, the English champions and beaten finalists in Budapest in May, arrive at the Allianz Arena with two wins and two clean sheets. Vincent Kompany's Bayern have scored freely but let in five across their last two games, and they have to rebuild the attack without Michael Olise, who is suspended.
Kick-off is 21:00 in Munich, 20:00 in the UK and 3pm ET in the US.
I'm less interested in the form guide than in four or five individual contests, because that's where I think this one gets decided.
Kane against his old north London rivals
Kane has scored in nine Champions League games in a row, and right now every half-chance he gets looks like a goal. He scored twice in Stavanger to drag Bayern back from 2-0 down against Viking, and he was on the scoresheet in the 5-0 win over Bodo/Glimt on Matchday 1.
Gabriel knows him well from the Tottenham years. The Brazilian leads a back line that hasn't conceded in Europe this season, and with William Saliba missing the Lille game through a back injury, more of the organising falls on him. He has to decide when to follow Kane into midfield, where the England captain likes to drop and pick passes, and when to hold the line and hand him over to a midfielder.
Follow too far and runners attack the space behind him. Stay deep and Kane turns and shoots from 25 yards. Arsenal kept their clean sheets against Napoli and Lille, and neither of those sides has a centre-forward anything like this.
Life without Olise
Olise had eight goals and four assists in nine games before he was sent off for throwing the ball at Viking captain Zlatko Tripic. Kompany called the red card "super dumb". With Olise out, more of the ball goes left, to Luis Diaz.
Diaz scored in the comeback in Norway and loves cutting inside onto his right foot. The man most likely to meet him is Jurrien Timber, Player of the Match against Lille on Tuesday after scoring in the 3-0 win. Timber is as comfortable stepping into midfield as he is defending one against one, so watch how high he pushes. If he joins the attack, Diaz gets room to run on the break. If Arteta keeps him home, Arsenal lose one of their best attacking outlets. Alphonso Davies, who also scored against Bodo/Glimt, will be overlapping on that side as well, and Timber could spend a fair bit of the evening outnumbered.
The right wing is Kompany's real headache. He can move a midfielder wider or pick a more direct winger, and either choice changes how Bayern build. Whichever he goes for, the plan still runs through Kane and Diaz.
Kimmich, Rice and the middle of the pitch
Joshua Kimmich's header settled the 2024 quarter-final, and he still sets Bayern's tempo. Declan Rice does the same job for Arsenal, covering ground and starting counters once he's won the ball back. Whichever of them sees more of it in the first half hour will probably end up on the winning side.
Arsenal have more help around Rice. Martin Odegaard's late strike won the opener 1-0 in Naples, and Eberechi Eze scored against Lille. Bayern, meanwhile, conceded five against Augsburg and Viking, and a midfield that gives the ball away cheaply invites more of that. I'd expect Rice and Odegaard to go after Kimmich early and try to force mistakes before Bayern settle.
How Kompany and Arteta will set up
Kompany's Bayern play on the front foot. The full-backs push on, the ball stays in the opponent's half, and Kane finishes what the wide players create. The cracks showed over the last week, in a 2-2 draw with Augsburg and a 3-3 in Stavanger where they were 2-0 down in the first half. My guess is he keeps the aggression and asks for more protection in front of the centre-backs.
Arteta's Arsenal have been patient in Europe. They had 26 shots in Naples, then took Lille apart without starting Bukayo Saka. Riccardo Calafiori's goal against Leeds was a reminder of how dangerous they are from set pieces, and they'll look to counter into the space Bayern leave behind their full-backs.
Allianz Arena. Photo: Tobias Alt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Munich hasn't been kind to Arsenal. Bayern beat them 5-1 there twice, in 2015 and 2017, and across 15 European meetings Bayern have eight wins to Arsenal's four, with three draws. The last meeting went the other way: Arsenal won 3-1 at the Emirates on 26 November 2025. And in May they came within a penalty shootout of the title, drawing 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain and losing 4-3 on penalties.
Bayern Munich
ArsenalBayern vs Arsenal prediction and likely line-ups
The weekend's league games will tell us more, so we won't guess exact XIs. Bayern should build around Kane up front, Diaz on the left, Kimmich in midfield and Davies at left-back, with the right side of the attack the only real unknown. Arsenal will probably keep David Raya in goal and Gabriel at the heart of the defence, and Timber, Rice, Odegaard and Eze should all start after the Lille win. Saka came off the bench on Tuesday and is the obvious one to come back in.
I think both sides score. The last three meetings produced nine goals, and Bayern at home with Kane in this form will make chances. Without Olise, though, they lose their sharpest creator, and the defending has been loose. Arsenal have the better recent form and the calmer back line, and a counter-attacking game suits them.
I'll go 2-2. Kane against Gabriel decides whether Bayern can win it, and Arsenal's grip on midfield decides whether they can avoid losing it.
Bayern MunichArsenalYou can watch Bayern vs Arsenal free on our Champions League live streams page, which goes live shortly before kick-off and needs no signup. There are also Bayern Munich live stream and Arsenal live stream pages, and both clubs' league games are on the Bundesliga streams and Premier League streams hubs. Spanish speakers can use Champions League en vivo.
Aston Villa host Viking the same night, and our Aston Villa vs Viking preview covers that one.
