From Chelsea’s Swagger to Arsenal’s Control: How a London Rivalry Flipped in a Decade

LONDON, England, October 1, 2026: When Chelsea went to the Emirates Stadium in September, Morgan Rogers needed only 77 seconds to score.

Ten years ago, that kind of start might have felt ominously familiar to Arsenal supporters.

Chelsea had spent much of the previous era turning meetings with Arsenal into demonstrations of power. They had the Premier League titles, the imposing personalities, the tactical cruelty and, for years, Didier Drogba. Even when Arsenal played well, Chelsea often seemed to possess a psychological advantage that existed before kickoff.

September 2026 felt different.

Arsenal conceded first, stayed composed, equalized through former Chelsea forward Kai Havertz and won 2-1 when Martin Ødegaard finished a flowing move after halftime. The Sports Encounter’s Matchweek 3 analysis examined how the defending champions recovered without abandoning their structure.

The result was not extraordinary because Arsenal beat Chelsea.

That is exactly the point.

Beating Chelsea has become normal for Arsenal.

Over the decade beginning with Arsenal’s 3-0 Premier League victory in September 2016 and running through the latest meeting in September 2026, the relationship between the two clubs has changed almost completely.

Chelsea went from being the club Arsenal were trying to catch to a club trying to prove it can catch Arsenal again.

The rivalry remains volatile. Chelsea have won major international trophies Arsenal still lack. They have rebuilt repeatedly, spent enormously and assembled another squad capable of challenging England’s best. Arsenal, meanwhile, have suffered their own failures, including repeated title-race disappointments and European heartbreak.

But head-to-head psychology, domestic consistency and institutional stability have moved decisively toward north London.

The story of Arsenal versus Chelsea over the last decade is therefore larger than 21 league matches.

It is the story of two clubs trading places.

The Arsenal-Chelsea Rivalry in Numbers: 2016 to 2026

The numbers become even more striking if the clock starts in January 2020.

Across the 17 competitive meetings from the 2-2 Premier League draw at Stamford Bridge in January 2020 through Arsenal’s September 2026 victory, Chelsea have won once.

Once.

That victory came in August 2021, when Romelu Lukaku and Reece James scored in a 2-0 Chelsea win at the Emirates.

Arsenal have won 12 of those 17 meetings. Four ended level.

For a rivalry involving two clubs with broadly comparable financial resources, elite squads and London-wide support, that is not a small fluctuation.

It represents a sustained shift.

2016-17: Chelsea Had the League, Arsenal Had the Power to Hurt Them

The decade begins with a useful contradiction.

Arsenal destroyed Chelsea 3-0 at the Emirates in September 2016.

Antonio Conte responded by changing Chelsea’s shape, moving decisively toward the three-man defense that would define the season. The defeat became part of the origin story of Chelsea’s title-winning tactical transformation rather than the beginning of an Arsenal ascendancy.

By February, Chelsea looked completely different.

They beat Arsenal 3-1 at Stamford Bridge, with Eden Hazard producing one of the defining individual goals of his Chelsea career. He collected possession near halfway, resisted Francis Coquelin, accelerated through Arsenal’s retreating defense and finished past Petr Cech.

Chelsea went on to win the Premier League.

Arsenal finished fifth.

If the rivalry had been judged purely by the league table, Chelsea were comfortably ahead.

Then Wembley complicated the picture.

Arsenal faced the champions in the 2017 FA Cup final and produced one of the strongest performances of Arsène Wenger’s difficult final years. Alexis Sánchez scored early. Diego Costa equalized late. Aaron Ramsey responded almost immediately to secure a 2-1 Arsenal victory.

The triumph made Arsenal the competition’s most successful club at the time and gave Wenger his seventh FA Cup. Arsenal’s official FA Cup history records both the 2017 win and the later 2020 final victory over Chelsea.

The pattern was emerging.

Chelsea had the stronger team across a league season.

Arsenal still possessed the capacity to damage them when a trophy was on the table.

That tension made the rivalry unusually compelling. Chelsea could legitimately claim superiority, but they could never assume Arsenal would behave like an inferior side when Wembley was involved.

2017-19: The Rivalry Became a Cup Battlefield

The next phase moved beyond ordinary league bragging rights.

Arsenal and Chelsea kept finding each other in knockout football.

They drew 0-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the 2018 League Cup semifinal before Arsenal won 2-1 at the Emirates. Arsène Wenger reached another Wembley final during his final season.

That Arsenal side was already declining as a league force. It finished sixth and missed Champions League qualification again.

Yet Chelsea still had to go through Arsenal to reach domestic finals, and Arsenal remained capable of stopping them.

Then came Baku.

The 2019 Europa League final changed the emotional balance in the opposite direction.

Both clubs had new managers. Maurizio Sarri was trying to impose his possession-heavy football on Chelsea. Unai Emery had taken over from Wenger and built much of Arsenal’s season around the possibility of returning to the Champions League through the Europa League.

One match would decide a European trophy and, for Arsenal, Champions League qualification.

The first half was scoreless.

The second was devastating.

Olivier Giroud, who had left Arsenal for Chelsea in January 2018, headed Chelsea in front. Pedro added another. Eden Hazard scored from the penalty spot and then completed the rout after Alex Iwobi briefly reduced the deficit.

Chelsea won 4-1.

The club’s official account of the Europa League triumph describes how Giroud, Pedro and Hazard destroyed Arsenal after halftime.

For Chelsea, it was European silverware.

For Arsenal, it was humiliation wrapped around consequence. The defeat cost them a trophy and a route back into the Champions League.

At that moment, the rivalry still looked tilted toward Chelsea whenever the stakes expanded beyond England.

2019-21: Arsenal Were the Weaker League Team but Became Chelsea’s Cup Problem Again

The next two seasons reveal why simple league-table comparisons often fail to explain this rivalry.

Arsenal were struggling.

Unai Emery was dismissed. Freddie Ljungberg took temporary charge. Mikel Arteta inherited a squad without a clear identity, without Champions League football and without the consistency expected of Arsenal.

Chelsea were going through their own transition under Frank Lampard, but they finished fourth in 2019-20 while Arsenal finished eighth.

The league table again favored Chelsea.

The FA Cup final did not.

Christian Pulisic put Chelsea ahead at an empty Wembley in August 2020. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalized from the penalty spot and then produced the decisive moment of the final, lifting the ball over Willy Caballero after turning Kurt Zouma.

Arsenal won 2-1.

Arteta had his first trophy as Arsenal head coach.

Chelsea had lost another FA Cup final to Arsenal.

The following season made the relationship even stranger.

Chelsea replaced Lampard with Thomas Tuchel and went on to win the Champions League.

Arsenal finished eighth and missed European qualification entirely.

Yet Arsenal beat Chelsea twice in the Premier League.

They won 3-1 at the Emirates on Boxing Day and 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in May.

Chelsea were champions of Europe.

Arsenal were eighth in England.

Arsenal still completed a league double over them.

This is where the rivalry started separating from the broader hierarchy of English football.

Chelsea could be the more successful club overall while Arsenal increasingly became the more troublesome direct opponent.

August 2021 Looked Like Chelsea Had Restored the Old Order

For one afternoon, it appeared the old relationship had returned.

Chelsea arrived at the Emirates in August 2021 as European champions. Romelu Lukaku had returned for a club-record fee and immediately gave Arsenal’s defense a miserable afternoon.

Lukaku scored after 15 minutes.

Reece James added a second.

Chelsea won 2-0.

Arsenal looked physically overmatched and tactically unfinished.

The reaction around the fixture was familiar: Chelsea had elite players ready to win immediately, while Arsenal were still talking about process, youth and a long-term rebuild.

That remains Chelsea’s most recent competitive victory over Arsenal as of October 2026.

The importance of that fact grows with every subsequent meeting.

April 2022: The Night the Direction of Travel Became Visible

Arsenal’s 4-2 victory at Stamford Bridge in April 2022 did not win a trophy.

It did not even ultimately secure Champions League qualification that season.

It may still be one of the most important matches in the modern rivalry.

Arsenal arrived after three consecutive Premier League defeats.

The pressure around Arteta’s young side was rising.

Instead of playing like a team trying to survive Chelsea, Arsenal attacked the game.

Eddie Nketiah scored twice. Emile Smith Rowe scored. Bukayo Saka converted a late penalty.

Arsenal won 4-2.

That performance contained several elements that would become central to the next phase of the rivalry: young players carrying responsibility, Arteta refusing to abandon his structure during a difficult run, and Arsenal discovering they could go to Stamford Bridge without treating the stadium as hostile territory that required compromise.

Chelsea still finished third that season.

Arsenal finished fifth.

But the clubs were beginning to move in opposite institutional directions.

2022-23: Arsenal’s Rebuild Became a Title Project as Chelsea’s Rebuild Became Chaos

The ownership change at Chelsea transformed almost everything except the club’s ability to spend.

Abramovich-era Chelsea had been ruthless, but there was usually an understandable relationship between the ruthlessness and the expectation of immediate success.

The next phase produced constant change in recruitment, coaching and squad composition.

Thomas Tuchel left.

Graham Potter arrived.

Potter left.

Frank Lampard returned temporarily.

The squad expanded dramatically.

Arsenal took the opposite route.

They kept Arteta.

They kept building around Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, William Saliba and Gabriel.

They added players to an increasingly defined tactical system rather than repeatedly changing the system around new groups of players.

The outcome appeared directly in the rivalry.

Arsenal won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in November 2022 through Gabriel Magalhães.

They won 3-1 at the Emirates in May 2023.

Arsenal finished second and challenged Manchester City for the title.

Chelsea finished 12th.

This was no longer Arsenal stealing cup finals from a stronger Chelsea team.

Arsenal had become the stronger league team.

The broader philosophy behind that rise remains central to the club today. TSE’s analysis of why Arsenal’s stability has become a competitive advantage traces the accumulated knowledge created by years under one manager and one broad football structure.

Chelsea have repeatedly had to rebuild that knowledge.

Kai Havertz Turned the Transfer Traffic Between the Clubs Into Something More Personal

Arsenal and Chelsea have never behaved like clubs unwilling to trade with each other.

Players have crossed London in both directions for decades.

The last ten years continued that tradition.

Olivier Giroud moved from Arsenal to Chelsea and then scored the opening goal against his former club in the 2019 Europa League final.

David Luiz and Willian later moved from Chelsea to Arsenal.

Jorginho followed in January 2023.

Then Arsenal signed Kai Havertz.

Havertz’s move mattered differently.

He had scored the winning goal in Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League final triumph. His place in Chelsea history was secure.

At Arsenal, he gradually became part of the team that surpassed Chelsea domestically.

Then he started scoring against them.

Havertz scored twice in Arsenal’s 5-0 victory in April 2024.

He later scored the 97th-minute goal that completed Arsenal’s 4-2 aggregate Carabao Cup semifinal victory over Chelsea in February 2026.

In September 2026, after Rogers gave Chelsea the early lead at the Emirates, Havertz equalized before Ødegaard won the match.

The former Chelsea player has become one of the clearest symbols of the new competitive order.

A decade earlier, Arsenal supporters watched Cesc Fàbregas score against them for Chelsea in a title-winning season.

Now Chelsea supporters watch Havertz help Arsenal beat them as defending Premier League champions.

Few details capture the reversal more neatly.

The 5-0 in 2024 Was More Than a Bad Night for Chelsea

Every rivalry has a result that becomes shorthand.

For Chelsea, one of those had long been the 6-0 destruction of Arsenal in 2014, Arsène Wenger’s 1,000th match in charge.

Arsenal acquired their own number in April 2024.

Five.

Leandro Trossard scored after four minutes. Ben White scored twice. Havertz scored twice.

Arsenal won 5-0.

It was the club’s biggest victory over Chelsea in any competition.

The Premier League’s official report confirmed the result as Arsenal’s largest ever against Chelsea.

The context amplified the embarrassment.

Arsenal were fighting for the Premier League title.

Chelsea were trying to salvage European qualification from a chaotic season.

One club looked organized, physically dominant and certain of its patterns.

The other looked unable to resist once the match turned against it.

Arsenal did not ultimately win the 2023-24 Premier League. Manchester City finished two points ahead.

That matters because it stops the 5-0 from being rewritten as the crowning moment of a championship season.

It was something else.

It was the clearest single-game demonstration that Arsenal’s project had moved far ahead of Chelsea’s.

2024-25: Chelsea Became More Competitive Without Reclaiming the Fixture

The following season was less dramatic head-to-head.

Chelsea drew 1-1 with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in November 2024.

Arsenal won 1-0 at the Emirates in March 2025.

The games were tighter.

Chelsea were improving.

The rivalry still did not change direction.

By then the argument was no longer whether Chelsea possessed enough individual talent. The club’s recruitment had ensured that.

The question was whether that talent could produce repeatable league performances.

Chelsea’s 2025 success complicated the debate in an important way. They won the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup, proof that the squad could perform in tournament environments.

That prevented any serious analysis from dismissing Chelsea as irrelevant.

Arsenal, however, remained the more convincing domestic structure.

This distinction continues into the present. The Sports Encounter’s 2026-27 title-contender ranking placed Arsenal ahead of Chelsea because sustained league performance requires a different kind of reliability from winning knockout tournaments.

2025-26 Turned Arsenal’s Head-to-Head Edge Into a Hierarchy

This is the season when the argument became hardest for Chelsea to resist.

The first league meeting at Stamford Bridge finished 1-1.

Then the clubs were drawn together in the Carabao Cup semifinals.

Arsenal won the first leg 3-2 at Stamford Bridge through goals from Ben White, Viktor Gyökeres and Martin Zubimendi. Alejandro Garnacho scored twice for Chelsea to keep the tie alive.

The second leg became an exercise in Arsenal control.

Arteta’s side protected the aggregate advantage, restricted Chelsea’s opportunities and then broke forward in stoppage time. Havertz rounded Robert Sánchez and scored in the 97th minute.

Arsenal won 1-0 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

A month later Chelsea returned to the Emirates in the Premier League.

Arsenal won again.

William Saliba headed the opener. A Piero Hincapié own goal levelled the match. Jurriën Timber headed the winner from another corner. Pedro Neto was later sent off.

The 2-1 victory restored Arsenal’s five-point advantage at the top of the Premier League.

Then came the result that changed Arsenal’s broader status.

They won the league.

Arteta’s team finished with 85 points and ended a 22-year wait for an English championship. TSE’s analysis of Arsenal’s attempt to turn that championship into a dynasty explains how three consecutive second-place finishes created the platform for the breakthrough.

Chelsea finished 10th.

The contrast had become enormous.

In 2017, Chelsea were champions and Arsenal were fifth.

In 2026, Arsenal were champions and Chelsea were 10th.

That is the cleanest summary of how dramatically the rivalry’s league context changed.

Arsenal’s Greatest Advantage Is Now Something Chelsea Cannot Buy Quickly

Money remains central to elite soccer, but one feature of modern teams resists instant purchase.

Shared experience.

Arteta has been coaching many of Arsenal’s most important players for years.

Ødegaard understands where Saka wants the ball.

Rice understands when Arsenal’s shape can open and when it needs protection.

Saliba and Gabriel recognize each other’s defensive movements.

Raya understands the positions his center backs will take before possession reaches him.

The value appears most clearly when a match becomes uncomfortable.

Players do not require every solution from the touchline because they have solved similar problems together before.

TSE identified that continuity as one of Arsenal’s largest advantages over the rest of the Premier League.

Chelsea’s model has largely produced the opposite experience.

New owners.

New sporting structures.

New managers.

New squads.

New tactical principles.

Another reset.

That does not mean Chelsea’s model cannot work. Their international trophies prove its ceiling.

It does mean every managerial change resets part of the collective learning process.

Xabi Alonso Gives Chelsea a Chance to Change the Rivalry Again

The current Chelsea project should not be confused with the most chaotic versions of the post-2022 club.

Xabi Alonso arrived in 2026 with a clear tactical reputation and an enormous squad.

Chelsea also committed heavily again in the transfer market, most dramatically by signing Morgan Rogers for a reported £117 million.

TSE’s analysis of why Alonso enters the season with few excuses highlighted another advantage: Chelsea have no European competition this season.

More training time matters for a coach attempting to install a new system.

The September meeting with Arsenal provided some encouragement.

Rogers scored after 77 seconds.

Chelsea played with aggression.

Estêvão forced Raya into an important late save.

The match looked considerably more competitive than the 5-0 humiliation two years earlier.

Arsenal still won.

That distinction matters.

Chelsea may be narrowing the performance gap without yet changing the result pattern.

The Sports Encounter’s full 2026-27 Premier League preview framed Chelsea as a talented team with enough quality to rise quickly if Alonso creates coherence.

The rivalry will be one of the best measures of whether that coherence is actually developing.

Why the Tactical Battle Has Changed So Much

A decade ago, Arsenal-Chelsea matches were often shaped by Chelsea’s ability to deny Arsenal the game Arsenal wanted to play.

José Mourinho’s Chelsea had perfected that approach before the period considered here. Conte then introduced a more aggressive wing-back system that allowed Chelsea to dominate transitions and overload wide areas.

Arsenal’s greatest weakness in those years was frequently what happened when attractive possession met an opponent comfortable without the ball.

The current version of the rivalry is almost inverted.

Arteta’s Arsenal are comfortable winning ugly.

They can defend a narrow lead.

They can score from corners.

They can press high or retreat into a compact block.

They can slow a match down when protecting an advantage.

The March 2026 victory over Chelsea illustrated this evolution. Two Arsenal goals came from corners. Chelsea created pressure in the second half, but Arsenal survived it and won.

The Carabao Cup semifinal second leg showed another version. Arsenal did not chase entertainment. They protected the tie and waited until Chelsea overcommitted before Havertz finished the counterattack.

This is not the Wenger-era Arsenal that Chelsea once delighted in frustrating.

Arteta’s team has absorbed some of the competitive pragmatism that used to define Chelsea.

The Rivalry’s Geography Has Changed Too: Stamford Bridge Is No Longer a Fear Factor

For years, Stamford Bridge carried a particular psychological weight for Arsenal.

Losses there felt predictable.

Drogba’s record against Arsenal became part of the mythology.

Mourinho’s home dominance reinforced it.

Hazard’s 2017 goal belonged to the same tradition.

Recent Arsenal teams do not appear to carry that baggage.

They won at Stamford Bridge in May 2021.

They won 4-2 there in April 2022.

They won 1-0 there in November 2022.

They drew 2-2 after falling two goals behind in October 2023.

They drew 1-1 there in November 2024.

They drew 1-1 there in November 2025.

Then they won the January 2026 Carabao Cup semifinal first leg 3-2.

The Bridge still produces atmosphere and pressure.

It no longer changes Arsenal’s identity.

The Rivalry Is Also a Story About Different Definitions of Success

A simple declaration that Arsenal have become “the bigger club” because of recent head-to-head results would flatten a much more interesting decade.

Chelsea’s European record remains superior.

They beat Arsenal to win the 2019 Europa League.

They won the Champions League in 2021.

They added further continental and global trophies afterward.

Arsenal have not won a European trophy during this ten-year period.

They reached the 2026 Champions League final but lost to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties.

Domestically, however, Arsenal’s trajectory has moved in the opposite direction.

FA Cups in 2017 and 2020 were followed by several years of rebuilding, three successive Premier League runner-up finishes and finally the 2025-26 title.

Chelsea’s ability to win tournaments has coexisted with extraordinary league instability.

That distinction is central to the modern rivalry.

Chelsea can still point to trophies Arsenal would desperately like to possess.

Arsenal can point to a domestic structure Chelsea are trying to recreate.

Ten Matches That Explain the Transformation

Has Arsenal Completely Replaced Chelsea as London’s Standard-Bearer?

Not completely.

That answer may frustrate supporters looking for a simple verdict, but it is the more accurate one.

Arsenal currently own the direct rivalry.

They are also the defending Premier League champions.

TSE entered the season asking whether Arteta can turn one championship into a sustained era, because defending the title would transform an excellent cycle into something more historically significant.

Chelsea’s recent European and global silverware cannot be dismissed simply because their league seasons have been inconsistent.

The clubs are measuring success through different bodies of evidence.

Arsenal’s case rests on league consistency, direct superiority and the strength of an established project.

Chelsea’s case rests on tournament-winning capability, extraordinary squad talent and a trophy cabinet that still contains recent honors Arsenal have not matched.

That is why the rivalry remains interesting.

If Arsenal were superior in every category, the rivalry would simply be domination.

If Chelsea were still superior in the ways they were a decade ago, there would be no story of reversal.

The tension comes from the split.

September 2026 Suggests the Next Phase Could Be More Competitive

Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea initially looked like another confirmation of their control.

Then both clubs suffered reminders that the season will not develop neatly.

Arsenal’s perfect Premier League start ended with a 3-0 defeat at Brighton.

Chelsea were beaten 3-0 at Brentford as defensive problems resurfaced.

TSE’s Matchweek 5 review examined how both London clubs were exposed on the same weekend.

That matters to the rivalry because Chelsea’s task is not merely beating Arsenal once.

They need to recover the week-to-week reliability Arsenal developed over several seasons.

Arsenal’s task is different.

They need to prove that last season’s title was the beginning of an era rather than its peak.

Neither project is finished.

So How Has Arsenal vs Chelsea Really Changed?

Ten years ago, the rivalry usually began with a question about Arsenal.

Could Arsenal handle Chelsea’s physicality?

Could Wenger outmaneuver Conte or Mourinho?

Could Arsenal avoid another damaging afternoon at Stamford Bridge?

Could they prove beautiful football could survive Chelsea’s pragmatism?

Those questions no longer define the fixture.

Now the scrutiny falls increasingly on Chelsea.

Can Chelsea match Arsenal’s organization?

Can another expensive collection of elite players become a coherent team?

Can Alonso build something durable enough to survive the inevitable difficult months?

Can Chelsea finally beat Arsenal again?

That final question would have sounded absurd during much of the 2000s and early 2010s.

It does not sound absurd now.

It is the central statistic of the modern rivalry.

Arsenal have won 12 of the last 17 competitive meetings.

Chelsea have won one.

The clubs remain close enough in resources, history and ambition for that sequence to eventually break.

Alonso may be the coach who breaks it.

Rogers, Palmer, Caicedo, Estêvão and Chelsea’s latest generation possess enough talent to change the conversation quickly.

But rivalries are shaped by what has happened, not by what a squad might eventually become.

What has happened over the past decade is clear.

Chelsea began the period as Premier League champions in waiting and Arsenal as a club fighting to remain among England’s elite.

Arsenal end it as defending Premier League champions, with Chelsea attempting another ascent toward them.

The rivalry did not become less important.

It changed direction.

Follow The Sports Encounter’s Premier League coverage for Arsenal, Chelsea, the title race, transfers, tactical analysis and every major development across the 2026-27 season.

Frequently Asked Questions About Arsenal vs Chelsea

Who Has Had the Better Arsenal-Chelsea Head-to-Head Record Over the Last Decade?

Arsenal have held the advantage. In the 21 Premier League meetings between September 24, 2016 and September 6, 2026, Arsenal won 11, Chelsea won four and six were drawn.

When Did Chelsea Last Beat Arsenal?

Chelsea’s most recent competitive win over Arsenal came on August 22, 2021, when Romelu Lukaku and Reece James scored in a 2-0 Premier League victory at the Emirates Stadium.

How Many Times Have Chelsea Beaten Arsenal Since January 2020?

Chelsea have won one of 17 competitive meetings from January 2020 through September 2026. Arsenal won 12 and four ended in draws.

What Is Arsenal’s Biggest Win Over Chelsea?

Arsenal’s 5-0 Premier League victory at the Emirates on April 23, 2024 is their biggest win over Chelsea in any competition.

Who Won the 2019 Europa League Final Between Arsenal and Chelsea?

Chelsea won 4-1 in Baku. Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Eden Hazard scored for Chelsea, with Hazard scoring twice. Alex Iwobi scored Arsenal’s goal.

Who Won the 2017 and 2020 FA Cup Finals Between Arsenal and Chelsea?

Arsenal won both finals 2-1. Aaron Ramsey scored the 2017 winner, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both Arsenal goals in 2020.

Why Is the 2022 Arsenal Win at Stamford Bridge Seen as Important?

The 4-2 victory came during a difficult Arsenal run and demonstrated that Arteta’s young side no longer needed to approach Stamford Bridge defensively. Arsenal have remained unbeaten there against Chelsea in competitive matches since.

Has Kai Havertz Scored Against Chelsea Since Joining Arsenal?

Yes. Havertz scored twice in Arsenal’s 5-0 win in 2024, scored the stoppage-time goal that completed Arsenal’s 2026 Carabao Cup semifinal victory, and equalized in Arsenal’s 2-1 Premier League win in September 2026.

Which Club Is Stronger Right Now, Arsenal or Chelsea?

Arsenal have the stronger current case based on their 2025-26 Premier League title, sustained league performance and dominant recent head-to-head record. Chelsea retain significant talent and recent international trophy success, but have not yet matched Arsenal’s domestic consistency.