Chelsea and Arsenal have battled each other for plenty of transfers in recent times
04:00, 20 Jul 2026
Arsenal have been beaten to the finish line for Morgan Rogers by Chelsea, who have agreed a club-record £117million deal for the Aston Villa attacker.
However, this isn't the first time the Blues have raced the Gunners for a signing. Rogers is set to sign a six-year deal at Stamford Bridge and is preparing to undergo a medical today.
The 23-year-old returned from a third-place win at the World Cup at the weekend, helping England defeat France 6-4 to earn their best position at the major tournament since their 1966 win. Rogers will become the most expensive signing in Chelsea's history, surpassing the £107m spent on Enzo Fernandez in 2023.
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The deal is also worth £1m more than the prior British record £116m Manchester City agreed to pay for Nottingham Forest's Elliot Anderson earlier this summer. Arsenal will now move on to other targets after their city rivals snatched Rogers from under their noses.
This is not the first time that a transfer hijack has happened between the two clubs. Here, football.london looks at some of the deals Arsenal missed out on to Chelsea.
Mykhailo Mudryk
The most recent one prior to Rogers was Mykhailo Mudryk, who joined the Blues for an initial £61m fee in 2023. Arsenal had been leading the way in negotiations.
They were set to make the Shakhtar Donetsk winger their club-record signing. Mudryk was understood to be keen to move to north London and then-Gunner Oleksandr Zinchenko even got involved in contacting his Ukraine international team-mate "almost every day, every two days, every three days."
Shakhtar valued the pacey winger at around £85m, but Arsenal were confident they could lower the price due to the player's willingness to depart. A fee of £61m was floated but the Ukrainian side rejected it - and this is where Chelsea stepped in.
Things moved quickly for the Blues as they were more willing to bring in add-ons for the winger. An initial fee of £61m was agreed, with up to £26.5m in additional bonuses, indicating they moved faster than their rivals for the rising star.
Raphinha
Chelsea almost beat Arsenal just months before they snatched Mudryk from under their noses. Raphinha had captured the attention of Mikel Arteta thanks to a super season with Leeds United.
The Gunners were closing in on the forward until Todd Boehly appeared with a bigger offer. It was looking likely that the Blues were set to best their rivals - but then Barcelona came knocking.
The Brazil international ended the fighting between Chelsea and Arsenal for his signature by opting to head to Spain to join the La Liga giants for a £55m fee. He has become a global star with Barca, earning a Ballon d'Or nomination last year and shining in the Champions League.
Eden Hazard
Arguably one of Chelsea's best players of modern times, Eden Hazard joined the Blues in 2012. The Belgium international joined from Lille for a fee of £32m and became a hero at Stamford Bridge.
Across 352 appearances, Hazard scored 110 goals and assisted 88 times. He came back to haunt the Gunners for not signing him by making three goal contributions in their 4-1 thrashing of Arsenal in the 2019 Europa League final.
Hazard had been strongly linked with a move to north London but Chelsea ultimately won the battle to sign the attacker. At the time, Arsene Wenger claimed he had "no big regrets" over missing out on the winger due to the lack of financial means at Arsenal.
He said: "I have no big regrets because, at the time, there was so much so much money involved we could not afford it, and not defend it, honestly. It was linked with all the environment. It was not feasible for us financially."
Petr Cech
Another star that went on to be a hero for the Blues was goalkeeper Petr Cech. He joined from Rennes in 2004 for just £7m and is regarded as one of the club's greatest signings, going on to keep a record 21 clean sheets in his debut Premier League season.
However, the goalkeeper almost decided to head to Arsenal in 2003, but a struggle to sort out work permits put a stop to the move. Speaking after eventually moving to north London in 2015, Cech said: "There was a chance before I went to France that I could sign for Arsenal but I was only 18 or 19 and at that time Czech Republic were not in the European Union.
"You needed a work permit and the conditions were to play 75 per cent of the first-team games for the national team, which at the time was impossible for me to get. In the end I went to France because I couldn't get a work permit.
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"I had a few teams who were interested but Arsenal was one of the main ones. I was so excited because of the Premier League and big clubs but unfortunately it was not the time for me to come.
"It was later with Chelsea, and I'm obviously grateful for that, but you can never prepare the ways in your life and you'll never know where you'll end up. So here we are."