Chelsea Football Club

Chelsea FC: Premier League History, Stadium, and Owners

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Chelsea FC History and Highlights.

Nowadays, Chelsea FC is widely known in the football community due to its incredible achievements, beautiful stadium, and well-built squad with proper depth in every position. Indeed, it is safe to say that, when it comes to London-based football clubs, Chelsea is one of the most popular clubs in London, second only to Arsenal. However, it was not like this from the start.

Founding

Back in 1905, when the club was founded, it won a promotion to the First Division in its second season. They then played their first final in 1915 when they faced Sheffield United in the FA Cup Final at Old Trafford, unfortunately losing 3-0.

First High

In fact, it wasn’t until 1955, 50 years after the club was founded, for them to finally win their first-ever English league and get their hands on the silverware. The club then won its first domestic cup in 1970 when they defeated Leads United to win the FA Cup.

Relegations

After that FA Cup victory, all went downhill, and they would face relegation to the 2nd division three times between 1970-1980.

Acquisition

The turning point in the history of Chelsea FC came when Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003 for 140 million pounds. They then quickly appointed Jose Mourinho as their manager and immediately went on to win back-to-back premier league titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06. An FA cup followed this in 2007, and two League cups in 2005 and 2007.

Besides a change in ownership and management, the main reason behind this successful period was the recruitment of players like John Terry, Drogba, Frank Lampard, and Peter Cech.

Breaking Records

In 2009–10, Carlo Ancelotti led them to their first Premier League and FA Cup Double. That season, the team would also become the first English top-flight club to score 100 league goals in a season since 1963; the same season in which Drogba scored 29 goals. Then, in 2012, Roberto Di Matteo took Chelsea FC to a seventh FA Cup title and their first UEFA Champions League title, making Chelsea FC the first London club to win the trophy.

Later in 2014-15, Chelsea won another league title under Jose Mourinho’s second spell, and in 2016-17 Chelsea FC won their last premier league title under the management of Conte. This was also the last season of their captain John Terry.

Key Players

In recent years Chelsea was in the news after spending 228 million pounds in the 2020 transfer window, signing key players like Thiago Silva, Chilwell, Timo Werner, Mendy Ziyech, and Kai Harvertz. After signing these players, Chelsea won the UEFA champions league in 2020-2021, the UEFA super cup in 2021, and the club world cup under Thomas Tuchel’s management.

In the past 25 years, they have won 5 Premier League titles, 7 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, 2 UEFA Champions League titles, 2 UEFA Europa League titles, 2 UEFA Super Cups, and one FIFA Club World Cup

Chelsea FC has been home to generational talents in the past 25 years. Some key players are John Terry, Peter Cech, Zola, Drogba, Etto, Eden Hazard, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Kai Harvertz, Mason Mount, and many more. Frank Lampard has the record for most goals scored in the club’s history, scoring 211 goals in 648 matches.

Stadium

Chelsea’s home ground is Stamford Bridge, where they have played since the club’s creation. It currently has a capacity of 41,837, making it the 9th largest venue in the 2021-22 Premier League season. Also of note is that during their title-winning season, 2016-17, Stamford bridge had an average attendance of 41,508 (99.7% of total capacity).

Rivals

English Clubs are famous for their rivalries, and Chelsea also has no shortage of rivals. Chelsea fans consider North London clubs as their biggest rivals. In a survey conducted in 2004, fans rated Arsenal as their number 1 rival. Chelsea FC fans started a rivalry with Manchester United when they lost their first champions league final back in 2008-9 after Manchester won on penalties. In recent years, fans consider Liverpool a rival club due to several cup final clashes between the two sides.

Nowadays, Chelsea FC is again in the news due to the Russia-Ukraine war, after the English government imposed sanctions on the club, forcing the Russian owner to sell the club.