It wouldn’t be outrageous to suggest that nobody likes Arsenal. Except Arsenal fans, of course, but they are the worst part of the club. The levels of delusion are unparalleled.
Nevertheless, few people dislike Arsenal more than Manchester United fans.
This North/South rivalry only really began during the Premier League era, and this was due to the epic battles of the late 90s and early 2000s, where Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger tried to out-think each other, and Roy Keane and Patrick Viera tried to kick lumps out of each other. It got really messy for a while – Sir Alex even got hit with a slice of pizza thrown in anger by a young Cesc Febregas!
For a while, Arsenal and Man United were the two Premier League teams, so it’s no wonder they fell out. However, this didn’t stop a good number of players moving between clubs.
It’s a different type of rivalry to say Man City or Liverpool. Direct transfers between clubs haven’t been all that rare, especially in the modern era, whereas that would be unthinkable between United and City, or United and Liverpool.
Here is a list of every player to have ever worn a shirt for both clubs. I’ll dig into a few of them a little more deeply further down the page.
Complete List of Players For Both Clubs
This list includes players even if they never made a first team appearance at both clubs. For example, David Platt was only ever a youth player at Man United but played three full seasons in the first team for Arsenal.
| Player | Years At Manchester United | Years At Arsenal |
|---|---|---|
| Caesar Jenkyns | 1 | 1 |
| Paddy Sloan | 2 | 2 |
| David Herd | 7 | 7 |
| Ian Ure | 2 | 6 |
| George Graham | 2 | 6 |
| Jimmy Rimmer | 9 | 3 |
| Brian Kidd | 11 | 2 |
| Frank Stapleton | 6 | 7 |
| Viv Anderson | 4 | 3 |
| Jim Leighton | 4 | 1 |
| Andy Cole | 6 | 3 |
| David Platt | 3 | 3 |
| Mikael Silvestre | 9 | 2 |
| Patrick Cregg | 1 | 5 |
| Robin Van Persie | 3 | 8 |
| Danny Welbeck | 6 | 5 |
| Alexis Sanchez | 2 | 4 |
| Henrikh Mkhitaryan | 2 | 2 |
| Hubert Graczyk | 1 | 10 |
| Chido Obi | 2 | 2 |
| Ayden Heaven | 1 | 6 |
What’s interesting about this list is the number of great players it includes, just look at some of those names! Very few players there that football fans won’t recognise.
Plus, Mikael Silvestre, Robin Van Persie, Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Chido Obi and Ayden Heaven were all direct transfers that occurred after the rivalry began.
It makes sense that there were fewer transfers from days gone by, as the distance between the two clubs would have been prohibitive in the days before mega wages, when players were more likely to stick to their own areas.
Manchester United Players Who Went To Arsenal
Take a look at this list. What do you notice?
| Player | Years At Manchester United | Years At Arsenal |
|---|---|---|
| Paddy Sloan | 1937–1939 | 1946–1948 |
| Jimmy Rimmer | 1965–1974 | 1974–1977 |
| Brian Kidd | 1963–1974 | 1974–1976 |
| Jim Leighton | 1988–1992 | 1991 |
| David Platt | 1982–1985 | 1995–1998 |
| Mikael Silvestre | 1999–2008 | 2008–2010 |
| Patrick Cregg | 2001–2002 | 2002–2007 |
| Danny Welbeck | 2008–2014 | 2014–2019 |
| Henrikh Mkhitaryan | 2016–2018 | 2018–2020 |
All of the players who have left United for Arsenal have done so after giving their best years to the Red Devils, or having not quite worked out for us.
It’s the opposite when looking at the list of players who went in the other direction.
(Jim Leighton was loaned to Arsenal after falling out with Alex Ferguson, before leaving United for good in 19992. This is is why the years don’t quite make sense)
Arsenal Players Who Went To Manchester United
A lot of direct transfers in this list too, and a lot of big names. It’s fair to say that United have mostly done well from their Arsenal signings – except Alexis Sanchez, of course.
| Player | Years At Arsenal | Years At Manchester United |
|---|---|---|
| Caesar Jenkyns | 1895–1896 | 1896–1897 |
| David Herd | 1954–1961 | 1961–1968 |
| Ian Ure | 1963–1969 | 1969–1971 |
| George Graham | 1966–1972 | 1972–1974 |
| Frank Stapleton | 1974–1981 | 1981–1987 |
| Viv Anderson | 1984–1987 | 1987–1991 |
| Andy Cole | 1989–1992 | 1995–2001 |
| Robin Van Persie | 2004–2012 | 2012–2015 |
| Alexis Sanchez | 2014–2018 | 2018–2020 |
| Hubert Graczyk | 2014–2024 | 2024–2025 |
| Chido Obi | 2022–2024 | 2024–Present |
| Ayden Heaven | 2019–2025 | 2025–Present |
Van Persie literally left Arsenal and won the Premier League with United straight away.
Andy Cole was a legend at Man Utd, but barely featured at all at Arsenal. He was a youth prospect there. For this reason I won’t feature him below.
Alexis Sanchez
This was the deal that broke Manchester United financially. Not because of the money at the time – he came as a straight swap for Henrikh Mkhitaryan – but because Ed Woodward broke the wage structure to sign him. That led to inflated wages for everyone else over time, and new star signings wanted similar amounts. It killed us financially, and led to the mega wages given to flops like Sancho and Antony.
To make matters worse, Sanchez didn’t exactly work out himself.
It looked like a good signing on paper. Sanchez had been fantastic for Arsenal – intense, direct, aggressive, all characteristics United fans love. But Man United did not get the Alexis Sanchez who played for Arsenal, they got a heavily diluted version.
To be fair, Sanchez came into a team that had tactical problems and no clear attacking structure, but still, he looked mentally and physically drained in a United shirt.
After scoring just a handful of goals, Sanchez moved on a season and a half after signing for the club. The only saving grace is that Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t work out for Arsenal either.
Oh, and the less said about his piano playing announcement video, the better. Seriously what was that all about?
Robin Van Persie
This one had to hurt for Arsenal fans… which is what makes it all the more enjoyable for United fans.
Robin Van Persie had been one The Gunners’ best players for years, spending 8 seasons with them. Yet, Arsenal had won almost nothing in that time. Van Persie was unhappy with the direction Arsenal was going, and out of frustration, refused to sign a new contract.
He had just had his best season ever, had one year left on his contract, and Manchester United came in for him with an offer of around £23/£24 million. Wenger didn’t want him to go, but Van Persie wanted to win the league.
Arsenal could either take the money or let him go for nothing a year later. They took the money. Robin Van Persie joined Man Utd and won the Premier League in his first season.
And what a season it was. RVP scored 26 goals, won the Golden Boot, and scored a hat trick against Aston Villa in a win that sealed the title. He was an instant cult hero at Old Trafford, even though he wasn’t at the club very long.
Danny Welbeck
United fans still look back remorsefully at Danny Welbeck.
A local lad, a product of the Manchester United academy who had broken into the first team, and a boyhood fan, Danny Welbeck was sold direct to Arsenal in 2014.
He had been a regular in the first team for three seasons and spent two seasons before that breaking through, but David Moyes had been playing him out of position and new manager, Louis van Gaal, did not see him as essential. Then, Radamel Falcao was brought in on loan for the same position and United tried to loan Welbeck to Tottenham.
Understandably, Welbeck ran out of patience and asked to leave permanently.
He scored a Champions League hat-trick soon after arriving at the Emirates, and scored the winner in a 2015 FA Cup quarter final to knock Man Utd out of the competition – at Old Trafford. He knocked United out of the same competition in 2026 while playing for Brighton. Welbeck is a player who has come back to haunt us on a number of occasions, but he is always respectful to his former club.
Everyone in Manchester still loves him.
Frank Stapleton
An earlier headline signing between clubs, was Frank Stapleton.
The Irish international had trials at Man United as a youngster but was not selected, and ended up at Arsenal. He progressed through the ranks there and eventually became their best player, helping them win the 1979 FA Cup – beating Manchester United in the final.
Issues over his wages led to Stapleton seeking another club, and he almost went to Liverpool, but there was a disagreement over the fee. Manchester United entered the race for his signature, and were successful.
Arsenal fans saw him as a traitor, leaving the club that made him just for money, but back then, there wasn’t the same rivalry between the clubs so that element was not really part of the controversy. It was all financial.
Frank Stapleton spent 6 years at Old Trafford, winning two more FA Cups and even experiencing the start of the Fergie era. However, he was not a fan of Ron Atkinson. Stapleton criticises him in his autobiography, and has claimed that the drinking culture at the club along Atkinson’s style of management and recruitment held the club back from winning the league during his time in Manchester.