Arsenal and Chelsea football rivalry

The rivalry between Arsenal and Chelsea is the football local derby in London between Arsenal and Chelsea.

Background

While they never considered each other primary rivals, as top clubs in London there has always been strong needle between the fans dating back to the 1930s. The Arsenal and Chelsea rivalry has been more recently considered an important derby, after Chelsea's rise to the top class of the Premier League in 2000s, when the two started to fight constantly for the English championship. According to a research which took place in December 2003 in the United Kingdom by the Football Fans Census, Arsenal fans consider Chelsea as their third rival, after Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.cite web|url=http://www.footballfanscensus.com/issueresults/Club_Rivalries_Uncovered_Results.pdf |title=Rivalry Uncovered! |publisher=The Football Fans Census |format=PDF |page=p. 3 |year=2003 |month=December |accessdate=2008-03-01] Chelsea fans see Arsenal as their main rival, while they considered Tottenham and Fulham as their main rivals in the past.

History

The first league meeting between the two teams took place on November 9, 1907 at Stamford Bridge. This was the first Football League First Division game played between two London clubs and drew a then First Division record crowd of 65,000. They met in two close contested FA Cup semi-finals in the 1950s, with Arsenal winning both times, and have contested two major finals, the 2002 FA Cup Final, which Arsenal won 2-0, and the 2007 Football League Cup Final, which Chelsea won 2-1. The two teams have also met in the UEFA Champions League in the quarter-finals in 2003-04 drawing 1-1 at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea winning 2-1 at Highbury to go through to the semi-finals.

Arsenal have won the more games in history, having won 68 times to Chelsea's 49, with 51 draws (as of March 23 2008). [ [http://www.soccerbase.com/head2.sd?team2id=536&team1id=142 Soccerbase] ] Arsenal's record win was a 5-1 victory in a First Division match at Stamford Bridge on November 29 1930. Chelsea's record win was a 5-0 victory at Highbury in the League Cup on November 11 1998.

tatistics

"As of April 12 2008"

Honours

These are the major football honours of Arsenal and Chelsea.

References

External links

* [http://www.soccerbase.com/head2.sd?team2id=536&team1id=142 Soccerbase]