Jamie Carragher believes Arsenal will stay small in European terms until the Champions League is finally won, adding sharp pressure to Saturday’s final in Budapest against holders Paris Saint-Germain after Arsenal just ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title.

That showpiece in Hungary pits the new English champions against a PSG side that has reached three Champions League finals since 2020, losing to Bayern Munich six years ago before heavily beating Inter last season under Luis Enrique.

Arsenal go into the decider with a long backlog of continental frustration, having played 225 Champions League matches without lifting the trophy and losing their last four major European finals, including defeats to Real Zaragoza in 1995, Galatasaray in 2000, Barcelona in 2006 and Chelsea in 2019.

Across nearly 140 years, Arsenal have collected only two European trophies, the 1969-70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the 1993-94 European Cup Winners’ Cup, a modest international return compared with a strong domestic record that now includes this season’s Premier League success.

The challenge comes at the end of a punishing schedule, as the match in Budapest is Arsenal’s 63rd and final fixture of the 2025-26 season, the highest total of any club from Europe’s top five leagues this year and the most for Arsenal since the 1979-80 campaign, when 70 games were played.

Victory against PSG would place Arsenal alongside Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City as the fourth English club to complete a league and European Cup or Champions League double in the same season, matching Liverpool’s feats in 1976-77 and 1983-84, United’s in 1998-99 and 2007-08, and City’s 2022-23 campaign.

“For a club of Arsenal’s standing, possessing only two European trophies in nearly 140 years is embarrassing, especially given some of the extraordinary players and managers who have defined an otherwise rich history,” Carragher wrote in The Telegraph. “Achievements at home, regardless of how unprecedented or dominant, carry less weight if they are not elevated by European glory. No club can join the pantheon of Europe’s footballing legends without the greatest prize. Arsenal are a giant of English football, but they remain European minnows until they win the Champions League.”

Arsenal Champions League pressure against PSG

“Saturday’s opponents, PSG, are the most recent example of how a club is elevated after a European triumph,” Carragher added. “Until Luis Enrique’s victory last year, PSG had to accept the constant criticism that they were big fish in the smaller pond of French football. Arsenal’s best chance of victory, however, is to be the best version of Arsenal they can be. Trying to match PSG’s style will fail.”

The final therefore offers Arsenal a chance to alter long-standing European perceptions in a single night, while PSG seek to underline recent progress in the competition, with Carragher arguing that the result will strongly influence how both clubs are judged beyond their domestic achievements.