The Chelsea-Arsenal rivalry was born in 1907 when the two first played against one other. This was the first time that two London teams had played each other in the First Division and drew a staggering capacity of 65,000.

For the majority of it, Arsenal has held the upper hand in the Arsenal-Chelsea rivalry. The two met in FA Cup Semi Finals in the 1950s and both times Arsenal came out on top. The first time was in 1950 where Arsenal won a replay 1-0 after the first match was tied at 2-2. Arsenal also won the 1952 semi final in a replay after the first leg was tied.

Arsenal’s domination over Chelsea continued through to the 2002 FA Cup Final. The match was a star-studded affair. Every player on both sides was an international. Arsenal had the likes of David Seaman, Tony Adams and Thierry Henry while Chelsea had Frank Lampard, Celestine Babayaro and Arsenal old boy, Emmanuel Petit. 0-0 at the half, Arsenal took the lead in the 70th minute courtesy of Ray Parlour and doubled the lead 10 minutes later thanks to Fredrik Ljungberg.

Chelsea finally had something to smile about regarding the Chelsea-Arsenal rivalry when they defeated Arsenal in the quarter finals of the 2004 Champions League. The first leg was a 1-1 tie at Stamford Bridge. Eidur Gudjohnsen opened the scoring in the 53rd minute and Robert Pires equalized six minutes later to give Arsenal a precious away goal. When Jose Reyes scored on the stroke of half time it was though that Arsenal was going to go through but Frank Lampard scored just after half time and Wayne Bridge found a winner three minutes from time to hand Chelsea a famous victory.

What took the Arsenal- Chelsea rivalry to another level was two things. The appointment of Jose Mourinho as Chelsea Manager and the transfer of Ashley Cole to Chelsea. Mourinho saw that the Chelsea-Arsenal rivalry was one way traffic. He wanted to change this up and in no time got under the skin of Arsene Wenger. Wenger and all of Arsenal didn’t like the fact that Cole wanted to go to Chelsea and after putting up a fight, finally let him go although it helped that they received William Gallas in return.

After this, Chelsea were far more competitive in the Chelsea-Arsenal rivalry. They started winning more games and more important games like they did in 2007 League Cup Final. This was the final League Cup final to be played in Cardiff as the new Wembley Stadium was now ready. The game was a spiteful one which really sent the Arsenal-Chelsea rivalry to the next level. John Terry was accidently kicked in the head by Abou Diaby which resulted in Terry being stretchered off the ground. Kolo Toure, John Obi Mikel and Emmanuel Adebayor all received red cards from referee Howard Webb.

On the field, Theo Walcott opened the scoring for Arsenal. Didier Drogba equalised to have it all level at half time. Just as it looked like the match would be heading to extra time, Drogba scored a second to give Chelsea the trophy.

Besides Petit, Cole and Gallas, a number of other notable players have played for both teams. Players the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Graham Rix and David Rocastle. Former Arsenal manager, George Graham played for Chelsea before moving onto Arsenal.