We head to Milan looking to extend our superb 100% record and move a step closer to finishing top of the Champions League league phase table when we face Inter on Tuesday (8pm UK).
With six victories from six under our belts, victory at the San Siro would see us set our longest-ever winning streak in Europe’s premier club competition, guarantee a top-two finish and secure home advantage in the second leg in the knockout phase.
Having returned home successful from seven of our last eight away games in the competition, we’ll jet off full of confidence that we can achieve all that despite facing the current Serie A leaders, and not having won in Italy since March 2008.
Inter the groove
Having seen Simone Inzaghi depart three days after their 5-0 mauling by PSG in last season’s Champions League final, Cristian Chivu’s time in charge has started well, with Inter topping Serie A after 21 games, three points ahead of neighbours AC.
Two defeats in their opening three games left them playing catch-up, but a run of eight victories and a draw from their last nine games has propelled them into first place. They began 2026 with a win over Chivu’s former side Parma, and then drew 2-2 with Napoli in a top-of-the-table clash, before successive 1-0 wins over Lecce and Udinese were claimed in the past week to keep building momentum.
Inter currently sit sixth in the Champions League table, and a victory against us would guarantee them a spot in the knockouts. That passage looked safe four games in when they beat Ajax, Slavia Prague, Union Saint-Gilloise and Kairat, but successive defeats to Atletico Madrid and Liverpool have seen them flirt with dropping out of the top eight.
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Everything you need to know about Inter Milan
What the managers say
Arteta: “In the Champions League, when you have the opportunity to achieve something, you have to grab it. Tomorrow we’re really going to have to earn it against a top, top side. [Finishing in the top eight] is massive, we know that, and if we win tomorrow, we know that’s going to be the case. So, let’s make it happen.
“We keep tricking the players – saying the next one is the most important [game] this season, and then three days later it’s the same! That’s the demands, that’s the expectations that we have, that’s the standard that we have set as well as a team and as a club, and we are living with that, with joy, with enthusiasm and with a lot of energy.” – every word from Mikel’s pre-match press conference
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Every word from Arteta’s pre-Inter Milan presser
Chivu: “We’re facing one of the strongest teams in Europe. They’ve invested, they have an identity and they’re constantly improving. Arsenal and Bayern are the strongest teams in Europe right now, but I’m also aware of who we are.
“We won’t start feeling defeated; we will be the best version of ourselves. It takes a positive attitude, a willingness to win the ball, and to take risks. We have players capable of maintaining that level of focus.”
Team news
We will once again be without the services of Riccardo Calafiori (muscle) and Piero Hincapie (groin), as well as Max Dowman who is recovering from a hamstring injury. Cristian Mosquera and Kai Havertz are both in the squad that travelled to Italy.
Mikel Merino, Christian Norgaard and Declan Rice are all one booking away from a one-match European suspension.
Inter will be without last season’s matchwinner Hakan Calhanoglu who has missed the past couple of matches with a calf problem, while Denzel Dumfries has undergone ankle surgery and is also missing.
Alessandro Bastoni and Marcus Thuram were rested against Udinese and should return, but Raffaele Di Gennaro (hand) and Tomas Palacios (thigh) are absent.
TALKING TACTICS
Adrian Clarke: The Nerazzurri line up in a consistent 3-5-2, and defensive solidity is their key strength. They have a tough, uncompromising back three, athletic wing-backs and a workaholic central midfield. Conceding just four times in six Champions League matches, they are a very resolute outfit, and Inter’s expected goals against tally (4.9) is the second best in the competition, behind us.
Chivu will encourage his players to be vertical in their passing, getting it forward as quickly as they can to a front two which often contains Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram, who can be a real handful with their skill and movement.
They will try to assert their dominance in the air, winning 62.1% of their aerial duels to lead the rankings in that department. The supply for that aerial threat comes from outstanding left wing-back Federico di Marco [above] who has delivered 25 open play crosses, the most of anyone in the Champions League.
But, at times they can lack a little imagination and creativity inside the final third, which has tripped them up in several of their big games in 2025/26. They lost 1-0 at home to Liverpool, in their last European home outing, creating very few chances, and in Serie A they have picked up just four points from a possible 15 against top five sides.
Facts and stats
Our last victory away to an Italian side in the Champions League was in March 2008 when we beat AC Milan 2-0. Since then, we have failed to win on five straight trips, failing to score a single goal.
Inter have lost two of their last three home matches against English sides (both versus Liverpool in 2022 and 2025),
Inter have lost successive Champions League games for the first time since February 2022, while it is as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 19. They last suffered three consecutive defeats in the competition between April and September 2011.
We have a +16 goal difference in the Champions League this season. Only one English side has matched that through their first six matches in a single edition – Liverpool in 2017/18 (+17).
Since the start of 2025, Lautaro Martinez has scored the joint-most goals in Champions League home matches (8 – level with Serhou Guirassy). He has netted as many goals in
home games in this period as all other Inter players combined.
Gabriel Martinelli has scored in all five of his Champions League appearances this season. Should he net against Inter, he would record the longest ever scoring streak by a Brazilian player in the competition.
Only Bukayo Saka (6 in 2024/25) and Thierry Henry (7 in both 2001/02 & 2002/03) have managed more strikes across a single season in the competition for us than Martinelli.
Yann Sommer has kept 14 clean sheets across 27 Champions League games for Inter, with only David Raya (15) recording more shutouts in the competition since Sommer’s debut for the Nerazzurri in September 2023.
Match officials
Portuguese official Joao Pinheiro has been handed control of this game, which will be the first time he has refereed us. He has been handling games in the top-flight of his homeland since 2015, and was added to the FIFA list in 2016.
His biggest appointment so far was the UEFA Super Cup final between PSG and Tottenham back in August, while he has only had one Inter Milan game on his watch – a 2-0 win against RB Leipzig in November 2014.
Referee: Joao Pinheiro (POR)
Assistants: Bruno Jesus, Luciano Maia (POR)
Fourth official: Joao Goncalves (POR)
VAR: Tiago Martins (POR)
Assistant VAR: Carlos del Cerro Grande (ESP)
Previous meetings
We are meeting Inter for the fourth time in the Champions League, and the Italians have won two of the previous three.
Having been paired in the 2003/04 group stage, we avenged a 3-0 loss at Highbury two months later, on one of our greatest European nights. Thierry Henry put us in front at the San Siro before a deflected Christian Vieri effort pulled the hosts level, however Freddie Ljungberg edged us back in front before some solo Henry magic and late strikes from Edu and Robert Pires sealed a historic 5-1 victory.
Incredibly, it would be 21 years until the sides met again when we were pitted against each other in the league phase, and we tasted a 1-0 defeat in Italy when Mikel Merino was harshly adjudged to have handled in the box, allowing Calhanoglu to score the only goal from the penalty spot and inflict our only league-phase loss.
Live coverage
Make sure you tune into Live From N5 just before kick-off to hear live commentary of the game provided by Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke, who will guide you through all the action.
You can also find out which broadcasters are showing the action live wherever you are in the world.
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