Robin van Persie played against his former side, Arsenal, for Manchester United on Sunday. The two rivals played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in the quest for automatic Champions League qualification.
The Dutchman is one of many Gunners to leave the Emirates in hope for a better return in terms of trophies, but which have hurt Arsenal fans most?
5) Samir Nasri:
The French international came from Marseille to North London for £15.8m in July 2008. He started 110 games for the Gunners, scoring 27 goals, becoming an important part in Arsene Wenger's side. However the Frenchman made it clear he was not going to sign the new five-year deal on £90,000 a week, which had been offered to him during his final season. In that season, he scored 15 times in 46 apperances for the North Londoners.
In awards, he was named French Player of the Year, was nominated for both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year awards and was also included in the association's Team of the Year. Despite that, he was not statisfied with his new contract and he moved north and headed to Manchester City for £22m, and his wages were doubled then what Arsenal offered him. Arsenal fans have some hate because of his so called ''money grabbing'' move, and at Manchester, he won the Premier League twice in 2012 and 2014, as well as a FA Community Shield in 2012 and a Football League Cup in 2014.
4) Emmanuel Adebayor:
The Togolese is no stranger to loyality. On January 13th 2006, Arsenal signed Adebayor for a reported £3m. He was given the nickname "Baby Kanu" due to his resemblance to former Arsenal star Nwankwo Kanu, whom Adebayor had idolised as a youth. At Arsenal, he made a huge impact where, in his four seasons for the Gunners, he scored 62 times in 142 apperances. In 2008, Adebayor scored his second hat-trick for Arsenal after coming off the bench at half time in a 6–2 victory against Derby County, making him the only player in the Premier League's history to score a hat-trick home and away against the same side in the same season. He was also included in the PFA Team of the Year and was also awarded the BBC African Footballer of the Year for his performances in 2008. However, he wanted to try a new place and Manchester City came knocking on the door.
For £25million, he did well for the Citzens but what he most remembered was scoring a goal against his former club in a 4-2 victory, where he ran almost the full length of the pitch to the Arsenal supporters and celebrated in front of the Arsenal supporters, who had been singing racist chants and insulting his mother for the majority of the game. A bad spell at Real Madrid was soon followed and then eventually settled upon Arsenal's rivals from the North, Tottenham Hotspur.
3) Ashley Cole:
Ashley Cole played seven years with the Gunners, his boyhood club, where there he won the Premier League twice, the FA Cup three times and Community Shield twice. There, he was loved by the Highbury faithful. However, he was involved in controversy following a tapping-up meeting with Jose Mourinho and Peter Kenyon of Chelsea. When the meeting was found out, all parties involved were fined for their participation, and Cole's agent had his license suspended for 18 months.
Cole signed a one-year extension to his contract following the incident, but then rejected Arsenal's contract extension offer for the much more lucrative contract being offered by Chelsea, and claimed he felt insulted by the wages being offered to him by Arsenal. At Chelsea, he won the Premier League, the FA Cup four times, the League Cup and also got European success, in dispair of his former club winning the Champions League and Europa League in consecutive seasons.
2) Cesc Fabregas:
Cesc Fabregas came to Arsenal at 16 from La Masia in Barcelona. Following injuries to key midfielders in the 2004–05 season, he went on to establish himself as Arsenal's starting central midfield playmaker and captain. He broke several of the club's records in the process, earning a reputation as one of the best young players in his position. For the 2008–09 season, he was appointed club captain of the Gunners, the season after he was named Young Player of the Year and was included in the Team of the Year.
In 2011, he moved back home to Barcelona, where he didn't make a big of an impact in three seasons despite winning domestic silverware. However, last season he moved to bitter rivals Chelsea, where he won the title he waited for so long and did so in one season with the Blues by winning the Premier League and has become one of the best players in the league at the moment.
1) Robin Van Persie:
A segway from a club captain to another. The Dutchmen replaced Cesc as club captain following his transfer to Barcelona. However, before that he was a young 21-year-old who left Holland for £2.75 million in 2004 as a long-term replacement for Dennis Bergkamp. He won the FA Community Shield and the FA Cup in his first season with the London club but did not win another major trophy for the rest of his eight-year spell at Arsenal, despite scoring 96 goals in 194 apperances. He moved to bitter rivals Manchester United in 2012 following a rejection of a new contract by the Gunners and, in his first season, he won the Premier League title and finished as the league's top scorer with 26 goals.