The seven players Welbeck will follow in playing for most of the Big Six – and who loves them now | OneFootball

Danny Welbeck will become the eighth player to feature for three or more of the Premier League’s Big Six when he makes his Chelsea debut.

None of the previous seven have counted Manchester United among their past clubs, so Welbeck has already bucked one trend.

Chelsea hope the former Arsenal striker can defy another by being more fondly remembered at Stamford Bridge than anywhere else.

Nicolas Anelka

Arsenal 1997-99 Liverpool 2001-02 Manchester City 2002-05 Chelsea 2008-12

A Double winner with Arsenal, Premier League champion and Golden Boot holder for Chelsea, club-record signing at Manchester City and the source of one of Steven Gerrard’s most intense Liverpool frustrations, Anelka spent most of his eclectic career trying to find a stable home, and came closest on his intermittent jaunts to England.

The Frenchman has frequently discussed his regrets at leaving Arsenal early, having burned so bright as a teenager to attract attention from Real Madrid; he remains one of the Gunners’ biggest ever sales.

After a brief Liverpool loan, a pre-takeover Manchester City made his re-Barclaysification permanent. In return, Anelka scored in the last Manchester derby at Maine Road, netted a last-minute winner at Anfield and inflicted upon Jose Mourinho his first Chelsea defeat.

His time at Stamford Bridge was the most productive, but a complicated legacy includes the least memorable Chelsea miss in the 2008 Champions League final penalty shoot-out.

Most loved by: Probably Manchester City on balance, back when the Big Six was barely a Big Four and probably actually just a Big Two.

Raheem Sterling

Liverpool 2012-15 Manchester City 2015-22 Chelsea 2022-26 Arsenal 2024-25

A “massive Manchester United fan” growing up, Sterling – much like Anelka – has yet to tick off them or Spurs on his Big Six odyssey.

Only an astonishing career renaissance at 31 would change that now, but the overwhelming evidence of the last four years or so suggests he might not be on the INEOS radar or Roberto De Zerbi’s transfer shortlist.

He remains a free agent after marking the end of his Chelsea bomb squad exile with a handful of underwhelming months at Feyenoord. Sterling moving to Stamford Bridge in the first place has gone down as one of the worst player decisions in modern history, so functionally phenomenal he was at Manchester City.

An opportunistic loan at Arsenal can be summed up neatly by his one goal in 28 appearances, while bridges to Liverpool were incinerated long ago.

Most loved by: Manchester City, because trophies and goals.

William Gallas

Chelsea 2001-06 Arsenal 2006-10 Tottenham 2010-13

A genuinely excellent defender, Gallas formed an exemplary centre-half partnership with John Terry under Claudio Ranieri, but Jose Mourinho captured his key strengths best:

Arsenal supporters likely remember his p*ss-boiling shirt number, misguided captaincy and Rubicon-crossing move to Spurs better. It even ended on a sour note at Chelsea for a player who never mastered the art of leaving quietly.

Most loved by: Spurs, purely on the technicality of not staging a one-man pitch protest or allegedly threatening to score own goals.

Kolo Toure

Arsenal 2002-09 Manchester City 2009-13 Liverpool 2013-16

An Invincible. One of the first players to take a step down in joining a Manchester City team on the up. Then a cult hero elder statesman who nearly completed an unprecedented Premier League title hat-trick at Liverpool.

Toure even earned extra brownie points at Arsenal for falling out with Gallas, and kudos for helping persuade younger brother Yaya to join him at the Etihad, while there are definitely actual real plans to erect a statute of his salmon tackle outside Anfield.

Most loved by: Everyone. As a wise man once said: “Kolo, Kolo, Kolo.”

Daniel Sturridge

Manchester City 2006-09 Chelsea 2009-13 Liverpool 2013-19

With inspiration taken from Anelka in also ticking Bolton and West Brom – but sadly not PSG or Real Madrid – off his career list, Sturridge’s reputation could hardly be more disparate to Le Sulk.

Much of that has been cultivated in his post-playing career, yet Sturridge was at his brilliant best when wrapped in cotton wool and unpacked purely to showcase his absurd finishing and wavy arms.

Arsenal supporter Sturridge scored more goals in that daft 2013/14 Premier League campaign than across his six-and-a-half almost entirely bit-part seasons with Chelsea and Manchester City.

Still loved by: Liverpool.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Looking back, it’s hard to shake the idea that Adebayor spent his first five years in England scoring lots of goals against Spurs while also inexplicably laying the groundwork to make a move to White Hart Lane possible.

He even scored twice against Spurs while he was at loan at Real Madrid from Manchester City, while he has more North London Derby goals against Spurs than Thierry Henry or Ian Wright.

Yet he also had a fight with team-mate Nicklas Bendtner in the closing stages of a 5-1 League Cup defeat at the Lane, allegedly tried to punch Frank Lampard in the face during a League Cup final (both denied it) and was later accused by Robin van Persie of kicking him in the face.

If all that wasn’t enough – and it wasn’t, Spurs fans still hated him – he then memorably produced the greatest Premier League goal celebration of all time by running the length of the field to celebrate in front of Arsenal fans after scoring against them for City.

Spurs welcomed him with open arms after that, even going so far as to change the words of the horribly racist song they used to sing about him. Added a couple more NLD goals against Arsenal, and for a time held the record for most goals in the fixture.

Having spent so long winning Spurs fans round, Adebayor then torched it all and saluted Tim Sherwood.

Yossi Benayoun

Liverpool 2007-10 Chelsea 2010-13 Arsenal 2011-12

It is to David Pleat’s presumed chagrin that Yossi Bennynoon never played for Spurs – although the Israeli did briefly turn out for Harry Redknapp’s QPR in the Championship alongside Tom Carroll, Jermaine Jenas, Niko Kranjcar and Benoit Assou-Ekotto for his final spell in England, so his honorary status is assured.

Only at Liverpool did Benayoun achieve anything approaching success with a member of the Big Six. The Reds signed a player described by Alan Pardew as “a skinny little critter” in 2007 and got more than their £5m worth.

Benayoun became the first player ever to score hat-tricks in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup during his time at Anfield, also netting at the Bernabeu and in the remarkable 4-4 draw with Arsenal in a particularly profitable 2008/09 season.

He left for Chelsea in 2010, but played more games on loan at Arsenal (25) than the Blues (24) despite spending three years at Stamford Bridge. Benayoun ended up with more goals for Liverpool (29) than games at either other club.