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Chelsea Football Club History: Chelsea have been in impressive form over the past few months and are finally taking off again towards a bright future after a challenging transition phase. They had a promising campaign last season, finishing fourth in the Premier League standings.

Chelsea have qualified for the Champions League competition for the upcoming season. The Blues won their maiden UEFA Europa Conference League title with a 4-1 victory over Real Betis in the final. The victory made Chelsea the first club to win all four major European trophies, including all three of the current European competitions.

Chelsea's triumph over Betis was the first instance that a Spanish club had lost a final since Valencia lost against Bayern Munich in the 2001 Champions League final and marked the first English team to beat a Spanish team in a European final since Liverpool's UEFA Cup triumph, also in 2001.

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Ahead of the upcoming season, Chelsea have gained incredible momentum as they defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the final to clinch the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.


Chelsea Football Club (CFC): History and rise as a top club

Chelsea FC is an English football club that was founded way back in 1905 and is currently managed by Enzo Maresca. The club plays in the top tier of English football in the Premier League, having the iconic Stamford Bridge as the venue for their home fixtures. 

Chelsea is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. Talking about the club’s name, it came from an interesting story, as there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, so the name of the adjacent area of Chelsea was chosen for the new club. The club also considered names like Kensington FC, Stamford Bridge FC and London FC, but Chelsea was finalised in the end. 

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Chelsea managed to get the promotion to the First Division in their second season, and witnessed so many ups and downs between the First and Second Divisions in their initial years. The team successfully made it to the final of the 1915 FA Cup, but they lost the title to Sheffield United at Old Trafford. They finished in the third position in the First Division in 1920, and interestingly, this was the club's best league campaign during that time. 

The club witnessed a highly challenging period during the 1950s and spent most of the decade in the middle of the points table as they lacked consistency. Under the manager Ted Drake, Chelsea's youth set-up and training regime improved impressively. He guided Chelsea to their first major trophy success when they bagged the League championship title way back in 1954–55.

Tommy Docherty was brought in as Chelsea’s new manager in 1961, and during his tenure, the team witnessed the emergence of a group of talented young players through the club's youth set-up. Chelsea had a golden chance to win a remarkable treble by League, FA Cup and League Cup going into the final stages of the 1964–65 season. They managed to win the League Cup but ended up missing out on the other two.

Under Docherty's successor, Dave Sexton, Chelsea went on to win the FA Cup in 1970 after their win against Leeds United by 2–1 in the final. Adding more to the success in the following year, Chelsea took their first European honour, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph, when they registered a remarkable victory over Real Madrid in Athens.

The club saw another tough phase during the late 1970s and 80s when the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge threatened the financial stability of the club. Adding to the concerns, some of the star players were sold, and the team was relegated as well. However, success came soon as Chelsea won the Second Division title in 1983–84 and established themselves in the top division with two top-six finishes, but they were relegated again in 1988. The club bounced back immediately by winning the Second Division championship in 1988–89.

Chelsea's form in the new Premier League era was unconvincing as they had to grind hard for major success, but they managed to reach the 1994 FA Cup final.

Gianluca Vialli's tenure brought a promising time as Chelsea won the League Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 1998, and the FA Cup in 2000. They made their first appearance in the UEFA Champions League. Interestingly, Vialli was sacked by Chelsea just to bring in Claudio Ranieri as the new manager, who guided the Blues to the 2002 FA Cup final and Champions League qualification in 2002–03.

 

Abramovic's ownership became game-changer

In a major turn of events, billionaire Roman Abramovich became the club’s new owner in 2003. Over £100 million was spent on signing new faces, but manager Ranieri was unable to deliver any trophies, so he was soon replaced by Jose Mourinho. Under Mourinho, Chelsea emerged as a rising powerhouse and were quick to taste success as well. They became the fifth English team to win back-to-back league championships since the Second World War (2004–05 and 2005–06). They also won the FA Cup (2007) and two League Cups (2005 and 2007).

However, they had a poor start to the 2007-08 season, which led to Mourinho’s departure. He was replaced by Avram Grant, who guided the club to their first UEFA Champions League final, which they lost on penalties to Manchester United. In 2009, under caretaker manager Guus Hiddink, Chelsea won another FA Cup before his successor Carlo Ancelotti guided them to their first Premier League and FA Cup Double. During that season, they also became the first English top-flight club to score 100 league goals in a season since 1963.

In 2012, new manager Roberto Di Matteo led Chelsea to their seventh FA Cup and their first UEFA Champions League title, beating Bayern Munich 4–3 on penalties. They had become the first London club to win the elite European trophy. They followed it with the Europa League title success in the next season. Mourinho returned as manager in 2013 and led Chelsea to League Cup success in March 2015, and the Premier League title two months later.

In 2017, under new coach Antonio Conte, Chelsea reached new heights as they ended up winning their sixth Premier League title, and the following season won their eighth FA Cup. Next season, under Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea reached the League Cup final, which they lost on penalties against Manchester City, but managed to win the Europa League for a second time with a victory over Arsenal by 4–1 in the summit clash.

Under Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea reached the FA Cup final and won their second UEFA Champions League title with a 1–0 win over Manchester City in the final in Porto. The club added more to the success as they won the 2021 UEFA Super Cup for the second time by defeating Villarreal 6–5 in a penalty shootout. They followed it by winning their first FIFA Club World Cup title in Abu Dhabi after beating Brazilian Palmeiras 2–1.

The Blues witnessed another change in the ownership amid the financial sanctions levelled at their Russian ownership by Western governments in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 7 May 2022, Chelsea officially confirmed that terms had been agreed for a new ownership group, led by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter and Hansjörg Wyss, to acquire the club.

Soon after the new owners took over, Chelsea brought in Graham Potter as their new manager to tackle some challenging situations, but only disappointments were witnessed as the performances of the team dipped massively, and it led to the departure of manager. Club legend Frank Lampard also served as a caretaker manager after that.

In another big change, Mauricio Pochettino was announced as Lampard's replacement in 2023. He coached Chelsea to a 6th-place finish in the league and a place in the Conference League play-off round qualification. He also led Chelsea to the 2024 EFL Cup final, narrowly losing 1–0 to Liverpool.

On 3 June 2024, Enzo Maresca was announced as Pochettino's replacement.


Chelsea Football Club Trophies Cabinet

FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2025

FIFA Intercontinental Cup (formerly FIFA Club World Cup) (1): 2021

UEFA Champions League (2): 2012, 2021

First Division/Premier League (6): 1955, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2017

FA Cup (8): 1970, 1997, 2000, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2018

League Cup (5): 1965, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2015

UEFA Europa League (2): 2013, 2019

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (2): 1971, 1998

UEFA Conference League (1): 2025

UEFA Super Cup (2): 1998, 2021

Charity/Community Shield (4): 1955, 2000, 2005, 2009

Full Members' Cup (2): 1986, 1990


Chelsea Football Club Legends

Chelsea have produced some of the legendary footballers like Frank Lampard, John Terry, Gianfranco Zola, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Eden Hazard, Peter Osgood, Ron Harris, Petr Cech, Jimmy Greaves and more.

 

Chelsea Premier League 2025-26 Season Full Schedule

Sunday, Aug 17 - Crystal Palace (h)

Saturday, Aug 23 - West Ham United (a)

Saturday, Aug 30 - Fulham (h)

Saturday, Sep 13 - Brentford (a)

Saturday, Sep 20 - Manchester United (a)

Saturday, Sep 27 - Brighton & Hove Albion (h)

Saturday, Oct 4 - Liverpool (h)

Saturday, Oct 18 - Nottingham Forest (a)

Saturday, Oct 25 - Sunderland (h)

Saturday, Nov 1 - Tottenham Hotspur (a)

Saturday, Nov 8 - Wolverhampton Wanderers (h)

Saturday, Nov 22 - Burnley (a)

Saturday, Nov 29 - Arsenal (h)

Wednesday, Dec 3 - Leeds United (a)

Saturday, Dec 6 - A.F.C. Bournemouth (a)

Saturday, Dec 13 - Everton (h)

Saturday, Dec 20 - Newcastle United (a)

Saturday, Dec 27 - Aston Villa (h)

Tuesday, Dec 30 - A.F.C. Bournemouth (h)

Saturday, Jan 3 - Manchester City (a)

Wednesday, Jan 7 - Fulham (a)

Saturday, Jan 17 - Brentford (h)

Saturday, Jan 24 - Crystal Palace (a)

Saturday, Jan 31 - West Ham United (h)

Saturday, Feb 7 - Wolverhampton Wanderers (a)

Wednesday, Feb 11 - Leeds United (h)

Saturday, Feb 21 - Burnley (h)

Saturday, Feb 28 - Arsenal (a)

Wednesday, Mar 4 - Aston Villa (a)

Saturday, Mar 14 - Newcastle United (h)

Saturday, Mar 21 - Everton (a)

Saturday, Apr 11 - Manchester City (h)

Saturday, Apr 18 - Manchester United (h)

Saturday, Apr 25 - Brighton & Hove Albion (a)

Saturday, May 2 - Nottingham Forest (h)

Saturday, May 9 - Liverpool (a)

Sunday, May 17 - Tottenham Hotspur (h)

Sunday, May 24 - Sunderland (a)