A Short Distance, A Fierce Rivalry
The North West London Derby. Arsenal FC vs. Chelsea FC. One of the most highly anticipated derbies in the English Premier League.
The distance between each club’s respective grounds, Emirates to Stanford Bridge, is only about 8-miles away. One of the shortest away trips between two clubs in the Premier League.
However, despite the short distance, rivalry amongst the fans of each club remains strong. For a player to play for both clubs is seen as an utter betrayal from the fans of the initial club.
And despite the abuse a player would receive as a result of the transfer, there have been several players who have made the move between the London clubs over their careers. Once they represented the red side of London and later, they represented the blue side of London, or vice-versa.
In this article, we look at the top 10 players who have played for both Chelsea and Arsenal based on the number of Premier League matches played. Keep reading below to see who the top 10 players are and where each player had the most success.
To note, the data presented in this article is only for Premier League matches, it doesn’t include domestic club competitions (e.g. FA Cup or Football League Cup) or European competitions (e.g. Champions League or Europa League). The data set we’re using is from fbref.com and their FA Cup and EFL Cup data only goes back to the 2014-2015 season.
As a result, we decided to proceed with strictly Premier League matches in our analysis. So, keep in mind when you see match and goal totals for a player, that is just for the Premier League matches. In most cases, when including all other competition matches, each player has played considerably more matches for both clubs.
The Top 10 Dual-Club Players Between Arsenal and Chelsea
The top 10 players who have played for both Chelsea and Arsenal have played a combined 2,703 Premier League matches amongst them. To reiterate again, this is just Premier League matches, with data as of December 1, 2025.
Another interesting fact is that out of the top ten players, six players played for Chelsea first. While the remaining four players, first played for Arsenal before transferring to Chelsea at a later date.
Lastly, only two out of the ten players played more matches for their second club. The majority of players, eight out of the ten, had a longer spell at their initial club, regardless of whether that was Chelsea or Arsenal.
The top 10 players who have played for both Arsenal and Chelsea, ranked by the number of combined appearances for both clubs, include:
- Petr Čech – 443 appearances
- Ashley Cole – 385 appearances
- Cesc Fàbregas – 350 appearances
- William Gallas – 260 appearances
- Willian – 259 appearances
- Olivier Giroud – 255 appearances
- David Luiz – 213 appearances
- Jorginho – 196 appearances
- Nicolas Anelka – 190 appearances
- Kai Havertz – 152 appearances
The below graph shows all ten players and the split between their Chelsea matches (blue bars) and Arsenal matches (red bars).
Individual Player Breakdowns: Arsenal–Chelsea Career Stats
Below we break down some high level statistics for each of the top 10 players when ranked by most combined Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea.
Petr Čech – 443 Combined Premier League Appearances
Leading the way is Petr Čech, who has played a combined 443 Premier League matches for Chelsea and Arsenal. Čech played 11 seasons with Chelsea, from 2004 up until 2015, in 2015 Čech transferred to Arsenal where he played for four seasons up until 2019.
Petr Čech’s combined 443 Premier League matches was split heavily in favour of Chelsea.
In terms of Premier League matches, he played 333 for Chelsea while only 110 for Arsenal. Čech made 1,000 saves for Chelsea and averaged a 0.73 goals against metric, while for Arsenal he made 321 saves and his goals against average rose to 1.15 for Arsenal.
Čech wasn’t only a shot stopper, he also contributed to the offense. During his time at Chelsea, Čech had two assists, one in each of the 09-10 and 10-11 seasons; he didn’t record any assists while at Arsenal.
Ashley Cole – 385 Combined Premier League Appearances
Next on the list is Ashely Cole, who played a combined 385 Premier League matches for Chelsea and Arsenal. Cole started his career at Arsenal, playing seven seasons (99 to 06) for them and a total of 156 Premier League matches.
In 2006, Ashley Cole transferred to Chelsea, where he played 229 Premier League matches over 8 seasons (2006 to 2014). Cole had 20 goal contributions at Arsenal (8 goals and 12 assists) and 26 goal contributions at Chelsea (7 goals and 19 assists). So on a per match basis, Cole’s attacking threat was a bit better during his earlier years at Arsenal.
Out of the 10 players noted in this article, Ashley Cole is only one of two players who played more matches for their second club, being that as either Arsenal or Chelsea. In Cole’s case, that was Chelsea.
Cesc Fàbregas – 350 Combined Premier League Appearances
The third highest in terms of combined Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea is Csec Fàbregas. From 2004 to 2011, Fàbregas played 212 Premier League matches for Arsenal, scoring 35 goals and assisting 70 goals.
After a 3-year stint at Barcelona, Fàbregas returned to the England at Chelsea, where he played 138 Premier League matches over five seasons (2015 to 2019).
During his time at Chelsea, Fàbregas scored 15 goals and assisted 41 goals. On a per match basis, Cesc Fàbregas’ goal contributions (goals and assist) were pretty even at both clubs, with 0.56 at Arsenal and 0.52 as Chelsea per match.
William Gallas – 260 Combined Premier League Appearances
Next up is William Gallas, who is ranked fourth on the list for the most combined Premier League appearances for Chelsea and Arsenal. In total, Gallas had 260 appearances split 159 at Chelsea and 101 Premier League appearances at Arsenal.
Gallas played first for Chelsea for five seasons (2001 to 2006) and then in 2006 he signed for Arsenal, playing with them for four seasons up until 2010.
William Gallas won two Premier League titles at Chelsea, back-to-back in the 04-05 and 05-06 seasons. However, during his time at Arsenal, they finished fourth twice and third twice.
Willian – 259 Combined Premier League Appearances
Fifth on the list is the Brazilian, Willian, who will mostly be remembered for his time at Chelsea. In total, Willian played 234 Premier League matches for Chelsea over seven seasons (2013 to 2020).
In that time, he scored 37 goals, assisted another 33 goals and a Premier League champion twice (14-15 and 16-17 seasons).
After Chelsea, Willian transferred to Arsenal in 2020 and had only a short stint with them for one season. In that time, he played 25 Premier League matches for Arsenal scoring only once and assisting five.
Rounding Out the Top 10
The remaining five players to round out the top 10 with the most combined Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea include:
- Olivier Giroud – 255 appearances (180 Arsenal, 75 Chelsea)
- David Luiz – 213 appearances (160 Chelsea, 53 Arsenal)
- Jorginho – 196 appearances (143 Chelsea, 53 Arsenal)
- Nicolas Anelka* – 190 appearances (125 Chelsea, 65 Arsenal)
- Kai Havertz** – 152 appearances (91 Chelsea, 61 Arsenal)
* Interesting fact about Anelka, he has played for six Premier League clubs. In addition to Arsenal and Chelsea, Anelka also played for Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton, and West Brom.
Anelka is also the only other player apart from Ashley Cole who played more matches for their second club, whether that be Arsenal or Chelsea. For Anelka, he played 65 Premier League matches first for Arsenal (96 to 99) and then went onto play 125 matches for Chelsea later in his career (07 to 12).
** To note, Kai Havertz is still playing for Arsenal, so it is likely his appearance account will continue to rise. As noted previously, data in this article is as of December 1, 2025.
Final Thoughts: From Red to Blue and Back Again
Well, that’s it for this article. In this post, we took a look at the top 10 players ranked by the most combined Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea.
When thinking of Arsenal and Chelsea, a name that always comes to mind is Petr Čech who made significant contributions at both clubs, but will likely be remembered more for his time at Chelsea.
Other notable players included the likes of Ashely Cole and Cesc Fàbregas, who both had over 350 combined Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea.
Kai Havertz ranks in tenth place currently but that could likely rise as time goes on, considering he is still playing for Arsenal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was close to making the list but ended up ranking 11th overall. Aubameyang had a combined 143 Premier League appearances for Arsenal and Chelsea, just 9 less than Havertz at the time of writing this article. The majority of his time was spent at Arsenal, where he played 128 Premier League matches; at Chelsea he only played 15.
What are your thoughts about players who have crossed London to become a red or blue? For the Arsenal and Chelsea fans out there, can you remember the good times a player had with your club before they transferred to the rival club? Or, is it hard to remember those good times after they betrayed your trust?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have any ideas on how we can improve these articles, please send them our way too.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!
JC
All data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!
Main photo by Fabrizio Velez on Pexels and Gina Bichsel on Pexels