Kevin De Bruyne has backed the idea that Arsenal are “the best team in the world” after Mikel Arteta’s side beat his Napoli team in the Champions League.
Arsenal opened their European campaign in Italy on Wednesday with another controlled display. Captain Martin Odegaard’s 75th-minute strike settled a 1-0 win at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
The Gunners won the Premier League last season for the first time since 2004. They also reached the Champions League final and lost on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain. Victory in Naples extended their perfect start this season to five matches in all competitions.
De Bruyne was hurting after coming away with nothing. He still felt Napoli “put in a good performance” against opponents of Arsenal’s quality.
What De Bruyne actually said
A CBS Sports reporter put the question to him after the match: Napoli had played well, but was the opponent perhaps the best team in the world right now?
According to Metro, the former Manchester City playmaker agreed.
“I agree, they are the champions of England and lost the last Champions League final on penalties, so we know how strong they are,” De Bruyne said.
He did not leave it as praise only. He also defended Napoli’s night.
“I think we actually put in a good performance. When we tried to play, we had some moments where we created chances, and of course we had to sit back at times, and in the second half we gave them a lot of chances, we were very deep.
“But then we had some good moments again, and for me that is an improvement on what I saw in the first few matches. We have started to play better, and that is a good thing.”
That is the full frame. De Bruyne accepted Arsenal’s status. He also argued Napoli are moving in the right direction.
How Arsenal won in Naples
The scoreline was tight. The chance count was not.
Arsenal had 26 shots and 4.05 expected goals, their highest totals on record in a Champions League match. Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, Piero Hincapie and Noni Madueke all missed clear openings. The game stayed 0-0 longer than the dominance suggested.
The winner was Odegaard. After patient work on the right, involving Bruno Guimaraes, Ben White, Christos Tzolis and the captain himself, Odegaard struck from the edge of the box. The shot went in off the post. It was his fourth goal in five games this season, after he scored only once in all of last season.
Napoli almost stole a point late. De Bruyne found space in the box and squared across the six-yard area instead of shooting. Nobody met it. Arsenal kept a fourth clean sheet in five competitive matches.
Why the “best team in the world” label fits this week
De Bruyne’s answer was not a random slogan. It was tied to recent evidence.
Arsenal are reigning Premier League champions. They were a penalty shootout from winning the Champions League. They have started this season with wins, including coming from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1, then going to Naples and winning ugly after missing a pile of chances.
That combination — league title, European final, five-game winning start — is what the reporter was pointing at. De Bruyne agreed.
It does not mean Arsenal are unbeatable. It means the standard around them has changed. Opponents now talk about them the way they used to talk about City or Real Madrid: if you get a good performance and still lose 1-0, that can still count as a respectable night.
Odegaard is the difference in the opening weeks
The captain’s start is the sharpest subplot.
Last season he was not a volume scorer. This season he already has four goals in five games, including the winner against Chelsea and the winner in Naples. He said after the Napoli goal that with the hosts sitting so deep, “at some point it made sense to shoot from outside the box.”
Tzolis now has three assists this season, all for Odegaard. Arteta’s substitutes are affecting games. The attack is not only Bukayo Saka isolation. It is patience, extra bodies in the half-spaces, and a captain willing to finish moves himself.
That is why a 1-0 away win in the Champions League still feels like an Arsenal statement. They did not need a rout to look like the team De Bruyne described.
What it means for Napoli and De Bruyne
Massimiliano Allegri’s side were missing Scott McTominay and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa. De Bruyne and Billy Gilmour came into midfield. Napoli sat deep, tried to hit on the break, and asked David Raya to make early saves from De Bruyne and Matteo Politano.
De Bruyne’s late square pass was the chance that will follow him. He has spent a decade creating those balls for City. This time nobody arrived. Arsenal survived.
His post-match tone was not bitter about Arsenal. It was about Napoli’s own progress. He thought the performance was better than the first games of their season. A 1-0 home defeat to the English champions can still be a step if the next European away game looks more like the good moments he mentioned.
Napoli go to Villarreal next in the league phase. Arsenal host Lille on October 13.
The bigger picture for Arteta
Arteta’s Arsenal used to be the team that pounded the rock and finished second. Last season they finally won the league. The Champions League final loss to PSG left one box unchecked.
This trip to Naples was the first European exam of the new campaign. Travel problems delayed hundreds of away fans. Napoli made it awkward. Arsenal still found a way.
Arteta has talked about hunger and the way the team reacts when it has to track back. That showed in the clean sheet more than in the missed sitters. A team that creates 4.05 xG and still needs a late edge-of-the-box strike is both dominant and unfinished. That mix is why “best team in the world” is a debate, not a closed case.
The honest answer to the headline
Is Arsenal the best team in the world?
De Bruyne’s answer, in the moment after a defeat, was yes — with the receipt attached. Champions of England. Champions League finalists. Strong enough that a good Napoli performance still ended in a 1-0 loss.
The rest of the season will test that line in the Premier League and in Europe. For one night in Naples, the most decorated midfielder on the pitch was willing to say it out loud.
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