Sorry Morgan Rogers, you’re wrong. Here’s the definitive proof that Arsenal are the BIGGEST team in London as James Sharpe gives Chelsea’s record signing a history lesson

Thanks a bunch, Morgan. Kick the hornets’ nest, why don’t you. 

‘I am joining the biggest club in London,’ declared Morgan Rogers after completing his £117million British record transfer to Chelsea from Aston Villa. Perhaps he genuinely means it. Perhaps you’re contractually obliged to say it when your new club fork out quite so much for you.

Elliot Anderson did his bit after his £116m move to Manchester City, too. ‘For as long as I’ve known, Manchester, City have been the Kings of Manchester,’ said the lad born in 2002.

Anyway, back to London. Rogers’ bold claim about a club that finished 33 points behind actual Premier League champions Arsenal last season stoked up all the old feelings and arguments. So, who are the biggest club in London?

Daily Mail Sport have donned a tin hat and bravely taken it upon ourselves to provide the definitive answer to the most divisive of questions…

Trophies

What do the biggest clubs do? They win stuff. And the more you win, the more your reputation grows, as do your coffers, and your size.

But it also depends on what you win. A case full of League Cups and Community Shields is far less impressive than one of Premier League trophies and European Cups.

Arsenal have more than double the league titles of Chelsea, won over a far longer period of time, and almost twice as many FA Cups. Domestically, there is only one winner.

Only, isn’t being champions of Europe (or the world) bigger than being champions of England? Arsenal’s continental shortcoming is their glaring weak spot. The biggest clubs have won the European Cup. Arsenal haven’t.

A penalty shootout against Paris Saint-Germain away from glory, of course, but Tottenham have won a European trophy more recently, so have West Ham, so have Crystal Palace.

Chelsea have two Champions Leagues, two Europa Leagues, even a Conference League.

They boasted that they are the only club in history to win every major European trophy, which, more than anything, made you spare a thought for fans of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

As soon as Gabriel sent his penalty high into the stands, Chelsea posted an invitation to book a stadium tour at ‘London’s Home of Trophies’, with Big Ears front and centre.

They are two-time Club World Cup winners, too, which sounds cool but is only starting to feel important now that there’s £100m to win.

Verdict: Tie

Arsenal have more than double the league titles of Chelsea and almost twice as many FA Cups 

Chelsea, however, have won the Champions League twice with Arsenal’s contiential shortcomings their glaring weak spot

League position

Gravitas comes with a weight of history, too. That all but one of Chelsea’s league titles have been since 2005, with a Russian oligarch signing bigger cheques than anyone else, will tell you that time is on Arsenal’s side. 

Since Arsenal joined the Football League in 1893, their average league position is 8.3. Across Chelsea’s history, theirs is 12.7. Tottenham’s is 11.7.

Across the 110 seasons in which both clubs have existed, Arsenal have finished higher in 77 of them.

Even in the Premier League era, when Chelsea stormed to power, the two clubs have split a higher finish 17 times apiece, though 16 of those for the Blues’ came across an 18-season period from 2004-05 to 2022-23.

However, Arsenal’s average position of 3.8 across the entire Premier League era still betters Chelsea’s of 5.

And even now Arsenal are current champions, after finishing second three times, during which time Chelsea finished 10th and 12th.

Verdict: Arsenal

Across the 110 seasons in which both clubs have existed, Arsenal have finished higher in 77 of them

Stadium and crowd

There’s simply no comparison between the Emirates Stadium, which Arsenal moved into in 2006, and Stamford Bridge. Bigger, better, fuller.

There was a brief five-year period before Arsenal’s move during which Chelsea boasted the marginally bigger crowds but, across history, the Gunners have had the greater attendances.

Chelsea’s average crowd even dropped below 13,000 in the early 1980s. Until Chelsea get an extension, or move, they cannot compete with Arsenal. Or Tottenham.

Yes, you can suggest, as the club’s supporters’ trust did during the malaise of Wenger’s final years, that Arsenal have not always been completely honest with their attendance figures — filled seats or tickets sold — but when the club’s fans come out they do so in force. Islington Council estimated more than a million people turned up for their Premier League title bus parade.

When Chelsea had theirs in 2015, official numbers were around 70,000. Around 200,000 turned up for their first under Jose Mourinho in 2005.

Verdict: Arsenal

There is no comparison between Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge

Over a million people reportedly attended Arsenal’s Premier League title parade in May

Spending Power

The biggest clubs splash the biggest cash, right? Few spend it like Chelsea. As we saw with Rogers, they have the power to do it from right under Arsenal’s noses.

What began under Abramovich has continued into the BlueCo years. Chelsea’s net spend — that’s NET spend — over the past five years is more than £800m, nearly £150m more than any other Premier League side and £262m more than Arsenal.

Chelsea announced a Premier League-record pre-tax loss of £262.4m earlier this year for the 2024-25 season. They have spent well over a billion but not much of it well.

Kieran Maguire, the football finance expert, recently listed the biggest wage bills in Premier League history, adjusted for football inflation and the spending power clubs had at the time.

Chelsea made up eight of the top 10 with all their seasons from 2003-04 to 2010-11 at the height of their Abramovich era.

Arsenal’s first appearance on the list, their 2011-12 season, is in 51st place. Ahead of them are 16 different Chelsea seasons, 17 Manchester United seasons, 12 Manchester City seasons and five Liverpool seasons.

And yet over previous two sets of results, Arsenal have blown Chelsea out of the water in terms of their revenue: £691m to £491m.

Declan Rice is the only Arsenal signing of more than £100m.

Chelsea now have three: Rogers, Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez. Their top seven all come in higher than Arsenal’s second most expensive arrival in £72m Nicolas Pepe. If they are to get Bruno Guimaraes from Newcastle, they will have to go higher than that.

Verdict: Chelsea

Chelsea showed their financial power by signing Rogers from right under Arsenal nose

Rogers is one of three Chelsea players to cost over £100m, while Rice is Arsenal’s only one

Star Power

Big spending brings big names and big managers. In the Premier League era, Arsenal have had Wenger, Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta in the dugout. Chelsea have had Mourinho (twice), Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel. The biggest names in the game. But then they have also had Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior. 

On the pitch, few have ever had the aura of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp or Patrick Vieira. Saka will be next. Chelsea will point to Didier Drogba and Eden Hazard. And Cole Palmer, perhaps?

Arsenal have taken a couple of Chelsea’s cast-offs in recent years, too, with Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke, and yet they are both now champions. 

Arsenal lead the way, too, when it comes to producing England stars. Rice, Madueke, Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze’s involvement in the World Cup quarter-final against Norway, took the club past 1,000 caps for Arsenal players. 

Chelsea, the first club to field an all-foreign team, in 1999, stand at less than 750.

Verdict: Tie

Jose Mourinho is among a host of big name managers to have taken charge of Chelsea

Few can match the aura of former Arsenal stars Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira

Social Media

The true test of how big a club is in the modern era is, surely, how many followers they have on social media. 

I would have staked everything on Arsenal winning this. Few supporter groups make their voices quite so piercingly heard than the Gunners’, and certainly when they feel, as they often do, that they have been wronged or robbed. 

And, yet, Chelsea win on all counts. They have more followers on X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, to the combined tune of more than 33 million.

Verdict: Chelsea

Insider’s view

It’s clear they both crave the title. Chelsea previously trademarked their ‘CFC LDN’ branding — what better way to prove you’re London’s big dogs? ‘There’s only one answer,’ replied one Arsenal source when posed the question.

‘The way Arsenal conduct themselves comes from a place of prestige,’ a prominent agent who has dealt with both clubs tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Chelsea have more of a big-club approach in the way they get things done. They are very much: if we want the player, we will do what it takes to get them. Put our cards on the table. That is a big-club mentality.

‘There’s definitely two different cultures, through which both see themselves as the biggest club in London but go about it in a different way. Arsenal are like your old money, slightly entitled aristocrat who can fall back on title and family history. Chelsea are the nouveau riche, super successful city worker who isn’t shy about showing off how much money they have and uses that to drive more success.’

Elon Musk might be the richest man in the world and Tesla the largest automobile company by market capitalisation, whatever that means, but good luck convincing anyone they are really bigger than Mercedes or Ferrari.

Verdict: Arsenal

Sorry Morgan, your new club may be big spenders but most metrics confirm the Gunners are the capital’s major players.

Overall verdict: Arsenal