It is rarely dull between Chelsea and Arsenal, with the London duo creating some Premier League classics over the years.
From FA Cup upsets to European routs and everything in between, there is hardly ever a bad game when these two teams line up on the pitch.
With that in mind, Football FanCast has created a list of the 10 best games between Arsenal and Chelsea.
10 2006: Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal
Right, we’re kicking things off with a game better remembered for what happened in the stands than the pitch.
The match was the first encounter between the two sides in the aftermath of Ashley Cole’s incredibly controversial transfer to Chelsea. The story was that the full-back made the move after being insulted by the contract offer he received from Arsenal.
Read more: Players to have played for Chelsea and Arsenal
This story infuriated the Arsenal faithful, who decided to make their frustrations known during the game when they threw fake cash onto the pitch with pictures of Cole adorning the front and back. Who says football fans aren’t subtle?
The game itself was still rather entertaining, mind, with Arsenal opening the scoring late in the second half before Michael Essien levelled things up for the hosts in the 84th minute with a sensational rocket.
9 1999: Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal
We’re going back to the 1990s for this one, and if there was ever a game that demonstrated just how brilliant a footballer Nwankwo Kanu was, this might be it.
Going into the match, Arsenal were looking for revenge as dropped points in this fixture the season before had cost them the title, and they did not want the same thing happening again.
Chelsea seemed to care little for their north London opponents’ title ambitions. However, by 52 minutes, they had established a comfortable two-goal lead, and it looked as if they would seal maximum points – until Kanu decided to put on a clinic, that is.
The Nigeria international pulled one back for the Gunners in the 75th minute and then grabbed another just eight minutes later to level the scores.
A sense of panic was now spreading amongst the supporters at Stamford Bridge, as well as with the Chelsea players themselves, and with just seconds left, Kanu fired home his third from a tight angle to give Arsenal the win.
8 2004: Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
Nobody likes losing to your rivals in the league, but you’ll usually get over it pretty fast; after all, you’ll get the chance for revenge in a couple of months, anyway.
The same cannot be said for a Champions League knockout game.
The second leg of the 2004 Champions League quarter-final between Arsenal and Chelsea is one of the best all-English ties in the competition’s recent history. Still, it’s probably not remembered quite so fondly by the men in red.
The sides had played out a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in the first leg, and so Wenger’s men – who were on their way to becoming invincible – fancied their chances of advancing at home.
Read more: Arsenal’s top 20 Champions League moments
A Jose Antonio Reyes goal on the stroke of half-time only reinforced the belief that the north Londoners would soon be semi-finalists, but a 51st-minute goal from Frank Lampard brought Highbury back down to reality.
The game was somehow even more tense from that point onwards, but the away side would finally cut that tension when Wayne Bridge put the Blues in front in the 87th minute with a match-winning away goal, breaking the hearts of Arsenal fans everywhere.
What makes this loss all the more painful is that the semi-final against AS Monaco, and arguably the final against Porto, were both very winnable games for this Arsenal side. Wenger could have had Old Big Ears to go alongside his golden league title that year.
7 2007: Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
Another victory for the men in blue makes it into the list at number seven, although it wasn’t just any victory, as this was the 2007 League Cup final.
Arsenal were making their sixth appearance in the competition’s finale, and Chelsea their fifth, but it was the first time the sides had met one another in the showpiece event. Tensions were already higher than in previous finals, as the two sides were battling it out for the league title only two years prior.
The Gunners were the ones to strike first in the game as Theo Walcott found the back of the net in the 12th minute, although it took just eight minutes for Didier Drogba to level the scores.
In the 63rd minute, Chelsea captain John Terry had to be taken off the pitch following a collision with Abou Diaby that left him unconscious.
The game was finally won by the men in blue when Drogba put away his second of the game in the 84th minute.
However, the game once again exploded into life when an argument between Kolo Toure and John Obi Mikel resulted in a fracas between both sets of players. In the end, both Toure and Mikel were sent off, as was Emmanuel Adebayor, who had hit Wayne Bridge during the scuffle.
6 2014: Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal
We’re sorry about this one, Arsenal fans.
It’s never nice to lose to one of your biggest rivals, but to lose 6-0 is a whole other level of hurt, and so this game is surely one the club’s worst defeats to Chelsea.
The build-up to the game was dominated by talk of Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge of the Gunners, and there were a lot of very nice things said about one of the game’s true greats, but those words would mean very little if the players on the pitch couldn’t put in a performance.
Unfortunately for the Frenchman, Samuel Eto’o opened the scoring after just five minutes before Andre Schurrle added another two minutes later. Things would go from bad to worse in the 15th minute when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled the ball in the box, which led to a penalty and a red card – although not to him.
Somehow, match official Andre Marriner mistook Kieran Gibbs for the Ox, and sent the left-back off instead, causing sheer confusion among the players. The penalty was calmly converted by Eden Hazard, but things kept getting worse for the men in red.
Oscar scored a fourth on the stroke of half-time to make it 4-0 before scoring another in the 66th minute. The game was rounded off in the 71st when a certain Egyptian named Mohamed Salah scored his very first Premier League goal.
Wenger’s special day really couldn’t have gone any worse.
5 2017: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
The Gunners have generally had the number of their west London opponents in the FA Cup, and the 2017 final was no different.
Going into the game, Chelsea had just been crowned Premier League champions while Arsenal had missed out on the top four for the first time in Wenger’s reign, and so it was the men in blue who were the clear favourites, although, that didn’t seem to translate onto the pitch whatsoever.
Arsenal took the lead in the fifth minute thanks to a controversial goal from Chile international Alexis Sanchez, and they continued to look threatening right up to the break.
Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea in the second half as Victor Moses got a second yellow card in the 68th minute for diving. However, even with a man down, Chelsea managed to level the scores when Diego Costa found the back of the net in the 76th minute.
Unfortunately for the Blues, their reprieve lasted just three minutes, as Aaron Ramsey scored the winner in the 79th minute, securing the Gunners their 13th FA Cup.
What made this win all the more impressive was that Per Mertesacker made his first start of the season and put in one of the all-time great FA Cup final performances, leading to Arsenal fans referring to the game as ‘The Mertesacker Final’.
4 2022: Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal
Arsenal’s visit to Stamford Bridge in April 2022 delivered them their biggest away win against the Blues in over a decade as they put four past Thomas Tuchel’s disorganised side.
The first half was a thoroughly entertaining affair that saw the Gunners take the lead twice, only for Chelsea to level the scores in reply. The second half was just as entertaining, but the home side could not reply when Arsenal doubled their score.
The result ultimately meant very little in the grand scheme of things as the Gunners still missed out on the top four, but the fact that all four goals were scored by Hale End products must have given the fans a lot to cheer about, with Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka adding to Eddie Nketiah’s brace.
3 2020: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
If we’re being honest, finals are usually rather rubbish, aren’t they? They can become boring games in which sides are so afraid of losing that they don’t create anything.
Well, that certainly wasn’t the case in the 2020 FA Cup Final.
Going into the game, Arsenal were experiencing something of a crisis as they had just finished eighth in the league, sacked Unai Emery earlier in the season and generally looked poor. Granted, they had beaten Manchester City in the semi-final, but there was a concern that the final would be a step too far.
Chelsea, on the other hand, had made it into the Champions League and generally looked to be making decent enough progress under Frank Lampard, although we know how that turned out.
The game was a tightly fought affair, and the Blues opened the scoring just five minutes in courtesy of Christian Pulisic. However, Arsenal found themselves level just 23 minutes later thanks to a penalty from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and it was the Gabonese forward who then gave his side the lead in the 67th minute thanks to a lovely curled effort.
While Arsenal were by no means dominant in the game, this win might just have given Arteta the time he needed when things started to go wrong the following season.
2 2019: Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal
The Gunners’ 6-0 embarrassment was bad enough, but Arsenal’s defeat to Chelsea in Baku was arguably even more painful.
The Europa League final in 2019 was probably Unai Emery’s most important game as Arsenal boss; after all, he had missed out on the top four, failed in the domestic cups and built his reputation off the back of winning the thing multiple times with Sevilla.
So, surely he’d deliver this time as well?
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, what unfolded in the Azerbaijan capital must be one of the most one-sided European finals in recent memory as Chelsea dismantled an incredibly poor Arsenal side to win 4-1.
Read more: Eden Hazard’s greatest career moments
The first half ended goalless, but within 20 minutes of the restart, the Gunners were 3-0 down and facing a humiliation in front of the footballing world. Alex Iwobi pulled one back for the north Londoners, but the damage was done, and a fourth Chelsea goal just three minutes later compounded Arsenal’s misery.
The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because it was so one-sided; we can’t call it the greatest game between the two sides, as only one team showed up that day.
1 2011: Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal
So, we’ve made it to our pick for the greatest game between these two sides, and we reckon a fair few of you will agree.
Now, there are usually a lot of goals when these two sides meet regardless of the competition, but the Premier League game at Stamford Bridge on 29th October 2011 took it to another level.
The eight goals scored on that day made this the highest-scoring encounter between Arsenal and Chelsea since the Gunners’ 5-4 victory back in March 1958.
Chelsea took the lead twice in the first half with a 14th-minute strike from Frank Lampard and a 45th-minute goal from John Terry, while Robin van Persie briefly gave the visitors parity in the 36th minute.
However, the Gunners soon took the lead in the second 45 thanks to goals from Andre Santos and Theo Walcott before the 55th minute.
Not sitting down, the home side once again levelled the scores in the 80th minute through Juan Mata, but two more strikes from Van Persie in the final stages of the match took the game away from the hosts and gave the men in red a famous away victory.
And there we have it, our picks for the top ten games between Arsenal and Chelsea. Let’s hope Saturday’s encounter can give us another classic.
