Petr Cech transfer: Five other players who moved from Chelsea to Arsenal

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Petr Cech is on the verge of completing his transfer from Chelsea to Arsenal, making him only the sixth player to move in that direction since the war. Here, West London Sport looks back on the success – or otherwise – of the other five deals. 

October 1953: Bill Dickson (Arsenal paid £15,000)
An accomplished wing-half who won 12 caps for Northern Ireland, Dickson joined Chelsea from Notts County in 1947, as a 24-year-old. His first few years at the Bridge were plagued by injury and illness, to the extent that he played just six league games in his first three seasons. But once fully recovered he was a big part of the Blues side of the early 1950s, making more than 100 appearances and scoring four times. In October 1953, he crossed London for a fee of £15,000 but after a fine first campaign his injury problems returned and he went on to make only five appearances in his final two seasons with the Gunners.

September 1966: George Graham (Arsenal paid £75,000 & Tommy Baldwin)
A League Cup winner in 1965, Graham scored 44 times in 92 games during his two full seasons at Chelsea and had added a couple more in the following one before Arsenal came calling. A strained relationship with Blues boss Tommy Docherty led to his departure, with Chelsea receiving £75,000 and Tommy Baldwin as part of the deal. Ironically his final game in a Blues shirt was against Arsenal – a 3-1 win – while Petr Cech’s first for the Gunners could be against Chelsea, in August’s Community Shield. Graham went on to enjoy a fruitful six years at Highbury as a player before nine years as manager in the 1980s and 1990s.

September 2006: William Gallas (part-exchange in Ashley Cole deal)
It was 40 years before another Chelsea player joined Arsenal, with Gallas and £5m enough to prize Cole from the Gunners. The protracted deal was incredibly messy – Cole had been fined for making illegal overtures to Chelsea some 18 months before he eventually joined, and Gallas ended talks on a new deal amid an ugly verbal spat with the club. The Frenchman won two Premier League titles and played 225 games for the Blues across five seasons but his controversial departure left a sour taste with fans. He captained Arsenal for a time but failed to win any silverware in four years at the Emirates. He did however help Spurs to the Champions League quarter-finals and retired last October after a spell with Australian side Perth Glory.

August 2007: Lassana Diarra (Arsenal paid undisclosed fee)
Earmarked as a long-term replacement for Claude Makelele, midfielder Diarra [pictured above] arrived from Le Havre for £1m in 2005 and, while barely featuring for the first team, he still won the club’s young player of the year award at the end of that season. His finest moment at Chelsea came against Arsenal, as he played at right-back in the League Cup final win of 2007. In search of more regular football, he joined the Gunners that summer but spent only five months there before Portsmouth splashed out £5.5m on him. An FA Cup win and European goal later, Diarra then joined Real Madrid in a £19m deal – a long way from his humble beginnings at Le Havre.

August 2011: Yossi Benayoun (loan deal)
After success at West Ham and Liverpool, Benayoun joined Chelsea for £5.5m in the summer of 2010 but a ruptured achilles meant he missed more than six months of his first season at the Bridge. Juan Mata’s arrival the following year pushed him down the pecking order and he joined Arsenal on loan, scoring six goals in 25 appearances in 2011-12. He had a further spell at West Ham before being released by the Blues at the end of his deal in 2013. Benayoun later spent six months at QPR but is now back in Israel.

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