Common Links Between West and North London

As Jorginho moves from Chelsea to Arsenal, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the players that have played for both clubs in the Premier era and determine if they did better in West or North London.

The name that would almost certainly spring to everyone’s mind when listing players that played for both clubs would be Ashley Cole. Cole was an Arsenal youth player who was part of their Invincibles team. He is arguably the greatest left back of his era and played a total of 228 games for Arsenal. His move to Chelsea was extremely toxic as he was found guilty of meeting with Chelsea over a possible move, without informing Arsenal. He was fined £100,000 by the Premier League for a tapping-up meeting at a hotel in January 2005 after a meeting with Jose Mourinho. Despite signing a one-year contract extension with Arsenal during the summer, Cole still left after launching a verbal attack on the North London club in his autobiography. This eventually led to Cole signing for Chelsea on 31 August 2006 for a fee of £5 million, plus William Gallas going the other way. The move angered Arsenal fans, who dubbed him "Cashley" a name that would see them wave fake £20 notes with Cole's face at him when the two clubs met each other next and he was subsequently booed by Arsenal fans every time he faced them. When looking at who had the better Ashley Cole, Arsenal have a case as during his time there he won two league titles and three FA Cups. However, his time in Chelsea was unbelievably successful playing 338 times and winning 1 league title, 4 FA Cups, 1 League cup, the Europa League and the Champions League. Not to mention the Player's Player of the Year award twice.

When looking at this same deal we move towards William Gallas, he was a versatile defender who could play both centre back and left back and is one of two players that have played for Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. He signed for Chelsea from Marseille in 2001 for £6.2 million. Gallas was a key part of the Chelsea squad that won back-to-back Premier League titles under Mourinho where he featured 46 and 45 times over those two seasons. However, he was growing more and more frustrated at playing left back instead of his preferred position of centre back. In total he played 225 times for Chelsea and would have still been seen as a cult hero in the eyes of Chelsea fans but when he left Chelsea issued a statement that Gallas threatened to deliberately score own goals if he was not allowed to leave the club. This has been rejected by Gallas himself but is still very much the truth in the eyes of the Chelsea fans. When he moved to Arsenal he took the number 10 shirt vacated by the recently retired Dennis Bergkamp, a number which carried a certain weight to it having been held by a legend of Arsenal. Despite starting brightly for Arsenal, his aggressive personality was on show when he fell out with several Arsenal players as well as Arsene Wenger on multiple occasions. He was eventually made captain, but this was taken off him after another outburst with Wenger. Overall, he played 142 times for Arsenal but is seen to have been more successful at Chelsea than Arsenal.

There are two players whose Arsenal and Chelsea careers were both real successes and arguments could be made where both clubs got the better end of these players careers. Firstly ,Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal aged 16 and was made captain at the young age of 21. He was one of the best players in the league during his spell at Arsenal and became a regular starter in the Spain setup too. In eight seasons at Arsenal, he played 303 times winning the FA cup and was a Champions League runner up. His move to Barcelona was seen as a homecoming for Barcelona fans as he was part of their youth setup but it wasn’t to last. After 3 seasons he was seen as surplus to requirements and was then offered back to Arsenal who didn’t take up the option. He instead moved to West London. Fabregas was a key player for Chelsea in the four and a half seasons he played there and helped them win the league during Mourinho’s second stint as Chelsea manager as well as another league title with Conte two years later. Overall, he played 198 games for Chelsea, winning an FA cup, a League cup and a Europa League, so his period at Chelsea was also a huge success.

The other player who had an equally successful period at both clubs was journeyman Nicholas Anelka. iHs period AT Arsenal earned him the PFA young player of the year award. Despite being young he was a first team starter and placed at 29th in the club's compilation of the 50 Greatest Gunners of all-time. During his three seasons there, he won the double in 1998 and scored 28 goals in 90 games for Arsenal before earning the nickname “le Sulk” and leaving to Real Madrid. He then proceeded to move around clubs before earning a move to Chelsea from Bolton in 2008. It was here that he would go on to play a key role in the double winning side managed by Carlo Ancelotti, although he missed the decisive penalty in the 2008 champions league final. His overall record at Chelsea was 59 goals in 184 games before departing for China and then continuing his journeyman career with a stint in Italy, India and back in England before retiring. Overall, his two best periods of his career were at Chelsea and Arsenal so very much seen as an equal success at both clubs.

The next player on this list is an Arsenal and France Legend, Emmanuel Petit, a high energy defensive midfielder who formed an excellent partnership with Patrick Viera in Arsenal’s double winning team of 1998. He also won the World Cup with France that summer, scoring a goal in the final against Brazil. His period at Arsenal saw him play 118 times and was a key part of Arsene Wenger’s first era at Arsenal. His successful period there earned him a move to Barcelona where he spent a season before wanting to come back to England. Petit joined Chelsea in 2001 and was there three seasons, but was largely disappointing in his time in West London and had his contract terminated in February 2004. He subsequently retired from football and has become what many believe to be an anti-Chelsea pundit.

The next player, although playing admirably for Arsenal 110 times, had a successful career at Chelsea, msking him a fully fledged legend in West London and is widely regarded as the greatest goalkeeper Chelsea have ever had. Petr Cech was at Chelsea for 11 years and won everything whilst being a key member of the Abramovic era. He holds multiple records in the premier league but one that shows how important he was for Chelsea is that he has 162 premier league clean sheets which is a record with one club. Cech is also the only goalkeeper to have won Premier league golden glove with two different clubs which shows that his time at Arsenal was also seen as a success. However, even the most diehard Arsenal fan wouldn’t be able to claim his better days weren’t at Chelsea.

Another player whose stint at Chelsea was considerably better than his Arsenal days was Brazilian winger Willian. Willian famously was having a medical at Spurs when Chelsea hijacked the deal at the last minute in 2013. He then spent 7 years in West London where he played 339 times scoring 63 goals and won two league titles, one FA cup, one League cup and the Europa League. He was a real mainstay in the team for his whole time at the club and took up the mantle of being Chelsea’s primary creative source when Eden Hazard left. However, Chelsea and Willian took the collective decision not to renew his contract in 2020 and he moved to North London, signing a 3 year deal with Arsenal. At the time of the transfer it was seen as a real coup and that Chelsea were going to be made to rue the decision to let him go. However, despite starting brightly with two assists on his debut it seemed like Willian was never settled and his contract was terminated after only a year wearing the famous Red of Arsenal.

There are many similarities between Willian and another Brazilian, David Luiz. Luiz had two spells at Chelsea from 2010 – 2014 and 2016 – 2019. In total playing 248 times scoring 18 goals and playing a key role in both periods at Chelsea. Both periods in West London were successful as he won a league title, two FA Cups, the Champions League and two Europa Leagues. He was a fan favourite for his long range freekicks and his jovial personality. Yet, he was beginning to be fazed out in his final season and so moved to Arsenal for £8million but wasn’t really able to replicate his Chelsea performances. Despite playing 43 times in his first season there he set a Premier League record for most penalties conceded by a single player in a single season with five. At the end of his second season, Arsenal decided to terminate his contract and he moved back to Brazil. His time in North London still gained him another FA Cup trophy but overall was a disappointment in the eyes of Arsenal fans.

Flipping the script with an Arsenal player whose spell in West London is seen as a disaster, is ex-Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He was at Arsenal for 3 full seasons and 2 half seasons, scoring 92 goals in 163 games and being the real focal point for Arsenal’s attack during that period. He won the golden boot in 2019 and made it into the PFA team of the year the following season. His time there also brought about an FA Cup trophy where he became the first African to win the FA Cup as a captain. Despite scoring goals regularly, discipline became an issue for Aubameyang as he clashed multiple times with manager Mikel Arteta. This was for all to see on the Amazon documentary and eventually saw Aubameyang’s contract terminated and he subsequently signed for Barcelona in February 2022. In September 2022 Chelsea came calling with a £12 million purchase to have Aubameyang link up with Thomas Tuchel again as the pair worked closely together at Dortmund. However, their reunion was to only last a few days as Tuchel was sacked and Aubameyang was left to wonder why he was brought to play for a manager who was no longer in the dugout. His time at Chelsea has been largely disappointing, scoring 3 times in 17 games. A move to America seems like the only viable option right now.

The Aubameyang to Arsenal deal meant they had to sell a striker to fit him in the squad and so they made the decision to sell Olivier Giroud to Chelsea for £18 million. This transfer was part of a domino of transfers, Michy Batshuayi on a season-long loan deal to Dortmund, Aubameyang to Arsenal and Giroud to Chelsea. Giroud’s time at Arsenal was a real success scoring 105 goals in 253 appearances for the Gunners and winning 3 FA cups whilst being there. He was the model professional, something that has been said about him during his whole career though his occasional goal droughts led Arsenal to believe he wasn’t good enough to lead the line on his own, so was sent to Chelsea. Originally, he was going to be a squad player but during his time at the club he had multiple spells where he was the first choice striker. His time in West London was a real success as he won another FA cup, the Champions League as well as the Europa League where he famously scored against Arsenal in Bakku. He would eventually depart for AC Milan in the summer of 2021. Overall, both clubs saw great performances from Giroud and with 39 goals in 119 games for Chelsea they saw a goal every 3 or 4 games at both clubs so I’ll leave this one as a draw.

The final two players were largely disappointing for both clubs and so neither club would remember much about their times there. The first one is Lassana Diarra who played 31 times at Chelsea and 13 times at Arsenal. Neither club saw the best of Diarra as he didn’t show much during either spell but his whole career was very much one of a journeyman. The second player is Yossi Benayoun who’s better part of his career was spent at West Ham and Liverpool. His time at Chelsea spanned three years but injuries limited his time there to just 24 appearances and he was sent out on loan to Arsenal where he strangely featured more times for Arsenal in one season than he did for his parent club playing 25 times in all competitions. He got a winner’s medal at Chelsea having played five times in the Europa league in the 2012/2013 season however, most of these were from the substitutes bench.

Only time will tell whether Jorginho’s time at Arsenal will be as successful as his period wearing a Chelsea shirt however when looking at players that have played for both, this is my synopsis: Better at Chelsea – Willian, David Luiz, Ashely Cole, Gallas, Cech, Giroud. Better at Arsenal – Petit, Aubemeyang, Claim for both – Fabregas, Anelka and Terrible at both – Benayoun, Diarra.