How Arsenal and Man City could face 'World Series' fixtures in 2026: Champions League draw key to Guardiola-Arteta matchups

London—When the velvet bags are opened in Nyon on Friday, 25 February, UEFA’s last-16 draw will do far more than pair Arsenal and Manchester City with first knockout opponents; it will map out the possibility of a four-week, five-match slugfest that could decide the Premier League, the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup and the Champions League.

Mikel Arteta’s side enter the ceremony as the only perfect record left in Europe—eight wins from eight in the new league phase—while Pep Guardiola’s City backed in through the side door, edging Galatasaray on the final night to finish eighth on goal difference. Both are seeded, so they will face a playoff survivor and play the second leg of their round-of-16 tie at home.

Yet the plot thickens immediately after that. Should City dispose of their last-16 opponent, they would meet either Arsenal or Bayern Munich—the league-phase runners-up—in the quarter-finals. The Champions League quarter-final first legs are scheduled for 7/8 April, the return legs for 14/15 April, three days before City host Arsenal in the Premier League on the weekend of 18/19 April. A domestic title race that already sees the Gunners five points clear, with City holding a game in hand, would collide head-on with a continental showdown.

The congestion does not end there. On 22 March the two clubs are booked to meet in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley. If both survive the FA Cup fifth round—Arsenal travel to League One surprise Mansfield Town, City visit Newcastle for a fifth meeting this season—the quarter-final draw could pair them again on the weekend of 4/5 April.

That scenario would create a sequence unrivalled in English football:

4/5 April – FA Cup quarter-final, City vs. Arsenal 7/8 April – Champions League quarter-final first leg, City vs. Arsenal 14/15 April – Champions League quarter-final second leg, Arsenal vs. City 18/19 April – Premier League, City vs. Arsenal

Guardiola has been here before: in 2011 his Barcelona met José Mourinho’s Real Madrid four times in 18 days, a stretch that came to define an era of Clásico animosity. Arteta, then Guardiola’s assistant, watched those duels from the Camp Nou touchline. Now the student could subject the mentor to the same furnace.

Historically Arsenal hold the edge with 100 wins to City’s 65, but City’s 12 consecutive league victories between November 2017 and April 2023 tilted the modern narrative. Since that run ended, Arsenal are unbeaten in six against the champions, winning three and drawing three, including the 2023 Community Shield on penalties.

The Premier League calendar leaves both sides with five fixtures after the Etihad meeting in April. The Champions League draw may determine whether those games are a coda—or the climax of a spring so compressed it could pass for a best-of-seven World Series on European soil.