Denílson Pereira Neves joined Arsenal as a promising teenager in 2006 from his boyhood club São Paulo, described by Arsene Wenger as "a little bit in between Tomáš Rosický and Gilberto". Denílson officially spent seven years on the books at Arsenal and was often criticised for his lack of defensive qualities, constantly slowing down attacks, and a lack of a quality passing ability. With the rise of Jack Wilshere and persistent injuries, Denílson's playing time was limited and eventually he departed the club after telling Arsene Wenger that he is a 'winner' and was upset at the lack of trophies during his time at the club. He returned to Brazil on a two year loan to his first club, São Paulo, with his squad number, 15, given away upon his exit to new signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlan, showing the clubs intent to make his loan deal permanent.

Denílson's return to Brazil was not the fairytale return he hoped for as he was sent off twice in his first three appearances, with the latter of the red cards coming after swearing at a referee. He received a number of angry messages from fans through twitter and later labeled the fans as 'very, very annoying', this caused outrage with the São Paulo faithful which lead to them demanding he never play for the club again. Denílson tried to defuse the situation by claiming he did not mean the comment to come across in a negative way. He did eventually go on to make more appearances for the club and scored his only goal for the club to date against Palmeiras. Denílson claimed his only trophy since his return to the club in 2012 with the Copa Sudamericana, Club Atlético Tigre refused to play the second-half in the second leg due to claims of security problems, the were 2-0 up at the time, and São Paulo were declared champions by default.

In 2013 Arsenal and Denílson had agreed to cancel his contract with the club, São Paulo initially had no interest in signing the player permanently until his contract was canceled. He has since signed a four year deal with the Brazilian club and has made only 17 appearances in the league since returning on a permanent basis. While it seems Denílson can never really live up to the potential that Arsene Wenger saw in him, he can still be an effective player if he can tone down his attitude and have the right relationship with his teammates, something he seemed to have lost when his mentor Gilberto left Arsenal.