Wayne Rooney’s Three-Word Response Comparing Today’s Arsenal With 2007–08 Man Utd

Arsenal are seeking to make English football history this season as they continue to compete on four fronts.

Wayne Rooney gave a blunt but funny retort. | Tiziano Ballabio/NurPhoto/Getty Images

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).

Arsenal won against Inter this week. | Andrea Diodato/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

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.

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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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