Gary Lineker fears Arsenal's lack of a superstar could ultimately cost them in the Champions League, and expects the arrival of Rodri to make Barcelona a genuine challenger.
Arsenal's European Journey
The Gunners will play in Europe as the Premier League champions and have reached the quarter-finals, semi-finals and then final in successive seasons. Mikel Arteta now wants his side to take the final step after last season's heartbreaking loss to PSG on penalties.
Arsenal began their Champions League campaign with a win in Napoli, but Lineker fears the north Londoners still lack the out-and-out superstar who can help lead them to a first ever European Cup.
Barcelona's Threat
Instead, he feels as if Barcelona, who already had Lamine Yamal in their ranks, could prove the biggest challengers to Arsenal. They have just added Rodri from Manchester City for £65million, and the midfielder has shown himself to have a winning mentality and be one of the world's best performers.
Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast: "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. 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."
Rodri's Pedigree
Rodri heads to Barcelona off the back of a trophy-laden period at City, who continued to thwart Arsenal up until last season. The Spaniard has also just been named the best player at the World Cup, where he lifted the trophy.
The Gunners' pursuit of a world-class forward was well documented. They eyed up Vinicius Jnr before he decided to extend his stay at Real Madrid, and then they were heavily linked with Julian Alvarez. Micah Richards believes the Atletico Madrid star would have been the final piece of the jigsaw.
"I’ve got no doubts about them in the Premier League but I’m not sure about Arsenal in the Champions League," he said. "If you go back to last season they were actually favourites early doors because of how good they are defensively. I think for them to be real force in Europe, Julian Alvarez would have been perfect."
"I just feel at times that for Arsenal to take their game to the next level, they would be almost complete if they had that superstar striker. Julian Alvarez would have been perfect for that position."
