Former Arsenal star admits joining Chelsea was a “f*****g big mistake” | OneFootball

Former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will perhaps have improved his reputation with Gunners fans by admitting that moving to their rivals Chelsea was a mistake.

The 36-year-old, now with Ligue 1 giants Marseille, was a star player for Arsenal for a number of years, and even captained the club for a while.

However, things ended badly for Aubameyang as he fell out of favour with manager Mikel Arteta and ended up sealing a surprise move to Barcelona.

From there, the Gabon international ended up joining Chelsea the following season, and it’s fair to say he flopped during that brief spell at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking about it now, it sounds like Aubameyang regrets it a lot, whilst also admitting that he perhaps wasn’t entirely sold on the move in the first place.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang explains regrets over Chelsea transfer

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during his time at Chelsea (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Speaking to Canal Plus, as quoted and translated by Goal, Aubameyang looked back at that difficult time at Chelsea, explaining how precisely the move came about.

“That was a big mistake going there. It was a f*****g big mistake,” he said.

“At that time I had a bad moment in Barcelona. I had a home break-in and Barca needed to sell a player — me or Memphis Depay — and the only thing that was on the table was Chelsea. So I said OK, for my family, I will move away, even if it’s Chelsea…”

He added: “I was thinking maybe it will be okay, Olivier Giroud went from Arsenal to Chelsea and he had no problems, but for me it was different.”

Players who played for Arsenal and Chelsea

Considering they’re rivals, Arsenal and Chelsea have had a lot of players representing both of them in recent years.

Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Kepa Arrizabalaga are all currently on Arsenal’s books after joining directly from Chelsea, while Jorginho, who left the Emirates Stadium at the end of last season, also recently made that same move.

David Luiz, Willian and Petr Cech also moved from Chelsea to Arsenal, while going further back we saw Ashley Cole and William Gallas swap places.

Others like Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Petit also played for the Gunners and then the Blues with a spell at Barca in between, just like Aubameyang.