Wayne Rooney is under no illusions that the Manchester United team he was part of in 2007–08 was far superior to the current Arsenal side of 2025–26. “We’d batter them,” he declared.
The Gunners set a club record in the Champions League on Tuesday night, winning a seventh consecutive game in Europe’s elite competition for the first time. They lead the league phase after winning every match so far and are already guaranteed a top-two finish with a game to spare.
After grinding out a tough but deserved win against Inter in Milan, Arsenal underlined their favourites tag, aiming to finally lift the Champions League trophy for the first time.
At this stage, they remain in contention for an unprecedented quadruple, also first in the Premier League, ahead at the halfway stage of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea and comfortably into the next round of the FA Cup.
It’s still a very tall order, but no English club has managed it before.
Manchester United’s 2007–08 team won the Premier League and Champions League, but were denied a treble by a shock FA Cup defeat to eventual winners Portsmouth, and a quadruple when Coventry City managed a bigger shock in the Carabao Cup equivalent (Carling Cup at the time).
But considering the players he lined up next to on a weekly basis and those in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal squad right now, Rooney was adamant. “We’d batter them,” he said during his appearance on Amazon Prime Video coverage of Arsenal’s trip to northern Italy, with a big grin on his face.
At this moment in time, Arteta’s Gunners have won nothing.
Their most recent trophy was the 2019–20 FA Cup, almost six years ago, nor have they contested a single final since. Arsenal have also consistently failed to get over the line in the Premier League title race in recent seasons, recording three successive second-place finishes, fighting with everything they have to change that.
Man Utd 2007–08 vs. Arsenal 2025–26—Starting XIs Compared
2008 United or 2026 Arsenal? pic.twitter.com/TWvmSN6weK
— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) January 21, 2026
| Positions | Man Utd 2007–08 | Arsenal 2025–26 |
|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Edwin van der Sar | David Raya |
| Right back | Wes Brown | Jurriën Timber |
| Centre back | Rio Ferdinand | William Saliba |
| Centre back | Nemanja Vidić | Gabriel |
| Left back | Patrice Evra | Riccardo Calafiori |
| Midfielder | Paul Scholes | Declan Rice |
| Midfielder | Michael Carrick | Martín Zubimendi |
| Midfielder | Ryan Giggs | Martin Ødegaard |
| Forward | Wayne Rooney | Bukayo Saka |
| Forward | Carlos Tevez | Viktor Gyökeres |
| Forward | Cristiano Ronaldo | Leandro Trossard |
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Wayne Rooney’s Three-Word Response Comparing Today’s Arsenal With 2007–08 Man Utd.
