10 Players Who Have Played For Arsenal And Chelsea
Here are 10 players who played for both the Premier League clubs. One would think that the list would not be this long with each of them being arch London rivals but quite a few seem to have represented both sides.
We have picked the players who we believe were the most entertaining.
Lassana Diarra
Lassana Diarra is a French footballer who signed for Chelsea in 2005 as a 20-year-old. He began his professional career with Le Havre AC. After a successful initial spell with the French club, Diarra was included in the France U21 team where he was spotted by the Blues scouts. In July 2005, he signed a contract and was welcomed into the Stamford Bridge.
In the 2005/06 season, despite having insufficient game practice Diarra was awarded Chelsea Young Player of the Year. Arsenal were interested in his services, so he joined them on August 31, 2007, for £2m.
At the beginning of 2008, Lassana Diarra joined Portsmouth F.C. explaining he had left Arsenal due to insufficient game time. After he joined Portsmouth, Lassana quickly became the main squad player.
Successful and interesting performance by the French footballer drew the attention of Real Madrid management and in mid-December of the same year, they signed a contract and Diarra joined Real Madrid.
Diarra’s official transfer was announced on January 1, 2009. On November 26, 2011, Lassana Diarra played his hundredth match for Real Madrid. In 2012 Lassana joined the Russian side, Anzhi in a deal worth €5m. In August 2013, Diarra moved to another Russian side, Lokomotiv Moscow.
He did surface in 2018, after signing a year-long contract with Paris Saint-Germain. It is unclear whether he will get an extension on that deal.
Yossi Benayoun
If you are thinking of a low-budget utility player, Yossi Benayoun is the first name that comes to mind. The midfielder was born on 5 May 1980 in Dimona, Israel and represented Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers in the Premier League.
Yossi’s first club was Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Later the footballer moved to the Netherlands and joined the youth team of Ajax. 16-year-old Benayoun became a striker and the best player of the squad but refused to sign a professional contract with the club, because his family decided to return to Israel.
At the age of 17, Yossi began to perform for the main team of Be’er Sheva, but he failed to prevent his club from being relegated to the second division. After that upset, the footballer 102-time Isreal international moved to Maccabi and amassed over 50 goals for the new team during two seasons.
In 2005, the midfielder penned a four-year contract with West Ham United worth £2.5m. Benayoun made his debut for the new club in the match against Blackburn and helped his team to the FA Cup finals that year.
Two years later, Liverpool poached him on a four-year deal. Yossi’s first appearance for ‘The Reds’ came in the Champions League match against Toulouse. Several days later, the footballer made his first Premier League appearance.
In the summer of 2009, Benayoun extended his contract with Liverpool for two years although getting linked with Dynamo Kiev.
Just a year later, Chelsea came calling and sealed a three-year deal worth £5.5m. Benayoun only got to feature in eight games for the Blues, scoring just one goal in the away match against Wigan.
On 31 August 2011, the footballer was sent on loan to Arsenal till the end of the season. Yossi took part in 19 games (ten times as a starting squad player and nine times as a sub) and fired four goals.
One year later, Benayoun completed a move on a season-long loan to West Ham United.
In 2013, Yossi was released from the club. In December 2013, QPR offered Benayoun a contract till the end of 2013/2014 season and the Israeli helped Harry Redknapp’s club to seal promotion to Premier League.
William Gallas
William Gallas is a French centre back of a Guadeloupe descent. He is an ex-player of the France national team. William was born in Asnières-sur-Seine, France.
Gallas was a trainee of the Clairefontaine youth academy. The first team the back played for was modest second division club, SM Caen. In 1996 Caen managed to get promoted to Ligue 1 and William drew the attention of top French teams. In 1997, he transferred to Marseille, spent four seasons there and relatively advanced in popularity with his countrymen.
In 2001, Gallas was bought by Chelsea for about £6 million. The footballer chose the number 13 shirt. Under the guidance of the head coach Claudio Ranieri, Gallas worked together with Marcel Desailly and later with John Terry. The main achievement of his partnership with Terry was a series of 16 games during one season, without conceding a single goal.
After José Mourinho succeeded Ranieri, Gallas still remained one of the pivotal components of the team. Playing for the Blues, he lifted the Community Shield, the Football League Cup and twice became the Premier League champion.
William and his team also made their way through to the 2004/2005 UEFA Champions League semi-final, but the South-West London outfit was stopped by Liverpool. Besides, in 2004/2005 season the French back gained a lot of experience playing as a left-back. That happened after Wayne Bridge got a serious trauma in one of the matches that season. Later William rather often came on the field as a full back.
In the summer of 2005, Chelsea bought left-back, Asier del Horno from Athletic Bilbao. Then it seemed Gallas should have returned at his centre back position, but he continued to share the left side of the defence with a rookie. William was very disappointed with the situation. That was the reason of a conflict with the management of ‘Blues’. The clash was the beginning of the end for the player’s Arsenal career.
After the 2006 World Cup, the French footballer decided not to go on the USA summer tour with Arsenal, explaining his refusal by amassed tiredness. Soon ‘The Blues’ bought Michael Ballack and gave him the number 13 shirt, which had belonged to William.
It became clear that Gallas would not stay in the club for another season. On 1 September 2006, the Frenchman became a part of an exchange deal that brought Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea.
William signed a four-year contract with the Gunners and took on the number 10 shirt, vacated by Arsenal legend, Dennis Bergkamp. Gallas made his debut for the new team on 9 September 2006 in the match against Middlesbrough, which ended in a 1-1 draw. On 23 September 2006, he scored his first goal for ‘The Gunners’ in the match against Sheffield United.
After Thierry Henry had gone to Barcelona in 2007, William captained the team. He made his first appearance as a team leader in the match against Fulham on 12 August 2007. On 16 December 2007, the French footballer netted the spectacular winner in a 1-0 victory over his former club Arsenal. In August 2008, Arsenal management confirmed Gallas would be staying at the club as their captain next season.
In November 2008, the defender gave an interview to Associated Press, where he criticized his club. He doubted the moral spirit of Arsenal and said the young players did not correspond to the club’s status. After that, Gallas was excluded from the initial squad for the match against Manchester City, stripped of his captaincy and fined two weekly wages. Despite a lot of rumours about him leaving, William stayed in London for the 2009/10 campaign and found the back of the net three times in his first three matches.
On 17 February 2010, the French centre-half had his 100th match for ‘The Gunners’ and came on the pitch against Arsenal. After 2009/10 Gallas’s contract expired and both parties failed to come to an agreement, allowing him to move to North London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer.
On 22 August 2010, the player officially moved to White Hart Lane. There was a tinge of sourness about the transfer as Tottenham were Arsenal’s next-door rivals. On 11 September 2010, Gallas made his debut for his new team in the match against West Bromwich, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The French centre-back soon became instrumental for the Spurs, playing in heart of their defence with Dawson, King or Kaboul. On 28 March 2011, William extended his contract with Tottenham till the summer 2013.
The beginning of 2011/12 was darkened by a serious injury of the player and he managed to return on the pitch only by the end of October. That season he made 15 Premier League appearances for Spurs.
At the end of 2012/13 season, the 36-year old Gallas was released from Tottenham and was offered a contract by Perth Glory.
Emmanuel Petit
Playing for the France National Team, Petit earned 63 caps and scored 6 international goals in his career and won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2000.
He scored twice in the 1998 World Cup, the first came from a powerful shot from just outside the box against Denmark, which turned out to be the match winner, and a second in the final against Brazil. Petit was also part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad. Petit retired from international football in September 2003.
He represented Arsenal for three seasons between 1997 and 2000. He was brought in for £2.7m and later moved to Barcelona along with his teammate, Marc Overmars in June 2000.
He won the Premier League and the FA Cup double in his first season at the Highbury. Petit formed a resolute partnership with his compatriot, Patrick Vieira in the Arsenal midfield.
After only a year in the La Liga, the Frenchman signed for Chelsea on a £7.5m transfer. He was instant success alongside Frank Lampard as well but could not really collect any trophies with the Blues. He played three seasons at the Stamford Bridge and eventually hung up his boots in 2005, after rejecting an offer from Bolton Wanderers.
Nicolas Anelka
Nicolas Sébastien Anelka is a French striker, born on March 14, 1979 in Le Chesnay, France.
The footballer started out at Paris Saint-Germain’s youth academy, aged 16. Soon he switched to Arsenal. Once established he was a regular for the club and bagged 23 goals in 65 games for the Gunners. His classy finishing attracted the attention of the Spanish giants Real Madrid. In 1999 Los Blancos completed the signing of the player. Despite his brilliant start, Anelka failed to impress his new manager and subsequently was plonked on the bench.
In the year of 2000, the striker returned to PSG for a fee of £20m. But the row with his coach forced him to move out on loan to Liverpool. He helped his team finish runners-up in the Premier League, netting goals against Everton, Fulham, Blackburn and Ipswich. However, the then Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier decided against signing him on a permanent basis.
On May 24, 2002, Anelka was transferred to Manchester City. During his stay at the Etihad Stadium, the nomadic striker scored 37 goals in 89 appearances.
In January 2005, he then transferred over the border to Turkey, where he penned a contract with Fenerbahçe. A year later, Nicolas returned to the Premier League for the third time in his life for Bolton Wanderers. In the 2006/07 campaign, he was the leading scorer among his teammates, finding the net 11 times. In 2008, Arsenal paid £15m to the Wanderers to secure the services of the player.
After 4 successful seasons with The Gunners, Anelka decided to join Shanghai Shenhua where he soon teamed up with his former Arsenal colleague, Didier Drogba. In 2013 Nicolas joined Italian champions Juventus on loan terms.
In the summer of 2013, Nicolas completed a one-year deal with West Bromwich Albion. However, in the winter 2013/14, Anelka was trialled for performing an allegedly anti-Semitic gesture ‘la quenelle’ after celebrating a Premier League goal and was released from West Bromwich.
From 1998 to 2010, Nicolas was a consistent performer for the France national team but his career took a huge dip later in his career. Anelka was signed by Mumbai City FC for the 2014 Indian Super League season which was his last contribution on the football pitch. He is currently youth team coach of LOSC Lille.
Petr Cech
Petr Čech was born on 20 May 1982 in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia and played 11 seasons with Chelsea.
He started playing football for the Viktoria Plzeň youth team as a halfback. At the age of 10, Petr got the leg fracture, which influenced his decision to move to the goalkeeper position.
In 1999, when he was 17, Petr Čech made his first professional appearance for FK Chmel Blšany. Petr also played for Sparta Prague, Stade Rennes and in January 2004 joined Chelsea.
Čech didn’t become the number one goalkeeper of Chelsea right away. Carlo Cudicini was the starting custodian for the Blues and was also considered one of the best Premier League goalkeepers of his time.
However, after a number of Carlo’s serious mistakes, Petr got a chance to prove his worth and in 2005, went on a run of 1025 minutes without conceding a goal, breaking the record of legendary Peter Schmeichel.
Unfortunately for Cech, he suffered a serious head injury in his third season at Stamford Bridge. He had to overcome a depressed skull fracture but never let his quality drop. In order to avoid further traumas, Čech continues to wear a head-guard to this day – a look which has become iconic because of him.
Cech lost his starting berth at Chelsea to Thibaut Courtois, provoking to seek first-team football elsewhere. Arsenal paid around £10m for the veteran shot-stopper and made him their number one choice. After 4 seasons at the Emirates, Cech announced his retirement after the end of the 2018/19 season.
He is one of the greatest goalkeepers to have ever played the sport and will be hanging up his boots with 3 Premier League trophies, 4 FA Cups, a Champions League trophy and a Europa League.
Cesc Fabregas
Fàbregas spent nine seasons with Arsenal before transferring to FC Barcelona for £35m. The Spaniard found immediate success with the powerful Barcelona team, which won the Spanish Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and Copa Del Rey in his first season.
In addition to his club successes, Fàbregas has starred for his country’s national team. The youngest player to appear in a World Cup game for Spain, Fàbregas distinguished himself on soccer’s biggest stage in 2006, when he came off the bench to spark a comeback win over Tunisia and vault his countrymen into the knockout stage. His performance drew praise from former Argentina captain Diego Maradona, who told a Spanish television station that “Cesc gave Spain the final ball that it was lacking in the first half.”Although Spain fell short of the ultimate prize in that year’s tournament, they soon proved indomitable in world play.
He served as a key member for his national team that won the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 Euro Cup. However, Fabregas could never break into the midfield trio of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets and was forced to either get benched or play out of position.
After just three seasons back with the Blaugrana, he decided to return to England but this time with Chelsea. The midfielder played 5 seasons with the South West London club and won the Premier League twice with them. It was only after the appointment of Maurizio Sarri that he had to move to AS Monaco in search of more playing time.
Ashley Cole
Star English defender who joined Arsenal in 2006 and began his long career with the English national team in 2001. He was named the England Player of the Year in 2010. He began playing professional soccer at the age of 18 for Arsenal. He led Arsenal to Premier League titles in 2002 and 2004.
But in 2005, the player was involved in an entire transfer drama with both clubs. Cole had met with Jose Mourinho who was Chelsea’s manager at the time over a potential move.
When the meeting was exposed to the public, all parties were met with punishment from the Premier League board. Cole got boycotted by the Gunners after his verbal attack towards the club. Eventually, after a lot of negotiations, he moved to Stamford Bridge for £5m and Arsenal received William Gallas in exchange.
Cole played 8 seasons with Chelsea and won the Premier League once and 4 FA Cups. Now, he plays for Derby County as a 38-year-old veteran.
Olivier Giroud
Olivier Giroud is currently a Chelsea striker with 17 goals and 11 assists in 61 appearances for the club.
He used to play for French side Montpellier, Grenoble, Istres and Tours. Olivier is also a player of the French national team. In 2010, he was voted the Ligue 2 Player of the Year and in the 2011/12 season, Giroud became the top goalscorer of Ligue 1 winning the league with Montpellier. He scored a double and two hat tricks in 14 games that season.
On 26 June 2012, Giroud transferred to Arsenal for about £12m and signed a long-term contract. He played for the North London outfit for 6 years, netting the ball 105 times in 253 appearances. He won the FA Cup thrice with the Gunners.
In the 2017/18 season, Arsene Wenger chose to bring in Alexandre Lacazette and then later, Pierre-Emerick Aubamyang in January, making it clear that Giroud will no longer be the club’s first choice.
Chelsea were in need of a striker with only Alvaro Morata at the club and signed on an 18-month contract.
Graham Rix
One of the English game’s best crossers of a ball, Arsenal’s dynamic winger, Graham Rix was a rare success story at international level for the underachieving Gunners side of the late 70s and early 80s.
A teenage star, Rix was tipped to reach the very top of the game as he settled into the Arsenal team and could easily have been called up by the time he was 20, with a number of superlative performances forcing many a keen eye in his direction.
Ron Greenwood, however, plumped for Peter Barnes and Laurie Cunningham as he tried to mould an attacking force based on sheer pace down the flanks, and although both were outstanding players, moves to West Bromwich Albion and Real Madrid respectively ended the ultimate fantasy.
Rix formed an impressive partnership with Liam Brady in the Arsenal midfield and went on to become the club captain in 1983. He eventually got caught up with injuries to his Achilles tendon, ending his Gunners career in 1988 with 464 appearances and 51 goals.
He later moved around the French league with Caen and Le Havre before making just one appearance for Chelsea in 1995.
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