7 players who left Arsenal for bigger clubs

#7 Samir Nasri

Samir Nasri drew the ire of Arsenal fans by moving to Manchester City in 2011

Not long after their takeover by the Abu Dhabi Group in 2008, Manchester City began to make a habit of trying to buy Arsenal’s key players – and in 2009, both Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor made controversial switches to the Etihad, with Adebayor in particular becoming a major villain after sprinting the length of the pitch to taunt Gunners fans after scoring a goal against them.

Two seasons later, history repeated itself as both Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri – both key men for Arsenal – jumped ship to City for fees of £7m and £25m respectively. But it was Nasri who really drew the ire of Arsenal fans for his attitude after moving, as one of his first statements was to claim that City’s fans had more passion than Arsenal’s.

Nasri won the Premier League title in his first season with City and played a key role – appearing in 31 Premier League games and scoring 5 goals. Much to the delight of Arsenal fans though, that was about as good as it got for him at City, as his form became largely inconsistent over the following seasons despite picking up another Premier League trophy in 2013/14.