Arsenal and Chelsea doing business with one another used to be on just one condition: “only if we have to”.The London rivals didn’t actually negotiate a deal until 2006, and the highly contentious cross-capital switch of Ashley Cole from north to west – with William Gallas thrown into the deal for good measure.Even in 2015, there was an extreme reluctance from Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to accept Arsenal’s move for Petr Cech – but it had been promised by owner Roman Abramovich.Times have changed: Arsenal and Chelsea could do business yet again this summerJorginho is one of several Chelsea players to head to Arsenal in recent years (Image credit: Getty)By 2018, the Gunners were struggling to qualify for the Champions League and Chelsea were faring a lot better – meaning that Olivier Giroud left N5 for SW6 with a fraction of the bad blood that came with Cesc Fabregas’ move, via Barcelona, of course. David Luiz in the opposite direction wasn’t seen as strengthening a rival either, followed by Willian on a free from the Blues to the Gunners – while in recent seasons, it’s been Chelsea rebuilding and Arsenal taking their used parts, with manager Mikel Arteta making a signing in every year of BlueCo’s ownership. Arsenal’s annual Chelsea raidYearPlayer/s2022Jorginho2023Kai Havertz2024Raheem Sterling (loan)2025Kepa Arrizabalaga, Noni MaduekeOften it makes sense for Arsenal to shop in West London: Chelsea have a recent history of stockpiling talent, developing them in the Premier League and are willing to listen to offers for players of a certain level that would be way more expensive elsewhere. That was certainly the case for Kai Havertz, a player who was nowhere near his prime but had already scored in a Champions League final and who certainly strengthened Arsenal in a problem position – and Noni Madueke, who had shown plenty of promise and was available for a good price and good wages, especially when compared to others on the market at the time. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Jorginho and Raheem Sterling, meanwhile, were market opportunities – and while it’s debatable how successful each has been, they did all at least provide experience and cover for very little expense.Simply put, Arsenal would have been quoted at least £80 million for a starting target man from most clubs, but got Havertz for around £60m: Madueke went for a similar fee to Anthony Elanga, and Chelsea spent nine figures replacing Jorginho with…
2026-08-07 12:19:47
Why Arsenal move for Chelsea's Josh Acheampong makes sense, following Xabi Alonso com
