From 20 March 2004 to 26 October 2008, Chelsea went a record 86 consecutive league matches at home without defeat, beating the previous record of 63 matches unbeaten set by Liverpool between 1978 and 1980. The club’s biggest top-flight win was an 8–0 victory against Wigan Athletic in 2010, which was matched in 2012 against Aston Villa. Lampard is Chelsea’s all-time top goalscorer, having scored 211 goals in 648 games (2001–2014); he passed Bobby Tambling’s longstanding record of 202 in May 2013. Every starting player in Chelsea’s 57 games of the 2013–14 season was a full international – a new club record. A 2012 survey, conducted among 1,200 supporters of the top four league divisions across the country, found that many clubs’ main rivals had changed since 2003 and reported that Chelsea fans consider Tottenham to be their main rivals, above Arsenal and Manchester United. According to Home Office statistics, 126 Chelsea fans were arrested for football-related offences during the 2009–10 season, the third highest in the division, and 27 banning orders were issued, the fifth-highest in the division.
The club brought in Graham Potter from Brighton & Hove Albion to replace Tuchel on 8 September 2022. The UK government approved the £4.25bn takeover, ending Abramovich’s 19-year ownership of the club. On 7 May 2022, Chelsea 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. In the following weeks, reports emerged of Abramovich’s involvement in brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia and securing safe evacuation corridors in besieged Ukrainian cities.
Songs and fan chants
He added several top international players to the side and led the club to their first major honour since 1971, the FA Cup. The club bounced back immediately by winning the Second Division championship in 1988–89. Bates bought a controlling stake in the club and floated Chelsea on the AIM stock exchange in March 1996 although by now the Stamford Bridge freehold had been sold to property developers, meaning the club faced losing their home. The following year, Chelsea took their first European honour, a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup triumph, with another replayed win, this time over Real Madrid in Athens.
What next for Arsenal?
Here’s how the top of the table looks after matchweek 13. It’s a London derby, everyone wants to win this game.” There were seven or eight players on yellows.
The team reached the 1915 FA Cup final, where they lost to Sheffield United at Old Trafford, and finished third in the First Division in 1920, the club’s best league campaign to that point. That’s twice as many as any other team so far this season. In the 2020–21 season, Chelsea won a domestic treble by winning the league, FA Cup and League Cup. Two years later, in 2020, they repeated their double success by winning the third league title and the FA Women’s League Cup for the first time. In 2015, Chelsea Ladies won the FA Women’s Cup for the first time, beating Notts County Ladies at Wembley Stadium, and a month later clinched their first FA WSL title to complete a league and cup double.
Why is one a red card and one not.” We were a much better team than them 11 vs 11 but then we lost a player. The performances have been fantastic. The Chelsea manager is seeing tangible progress from his team as they Chelsea House Review keep pressure on at the top of the table.
Get briefed on Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal
The appointment of Ruud Gullit as player-manager in 1996 began an upturn in the team’s fortunes. Chelsea’s form in the new Premier League was unconvincing, although they did reach the 1994 FA Cup final. In 1982, at the nadir of their fortunes, Chelsea were acquired by Ken Bates from Mears’ great-nephew Brian Mears, for the nominal sum of £1. Further problems were caused by a notorious hooligan element among the support, which was to plague the club throughout the decade.
They reached the final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time, losing to Barcelona 4–0. The club were promoted to the Premier Division for the first time in 2005 as Southern Division champions and won the Surrey County Cup nine times between 2003 and 2013. They have been affiliated to the men’s team since 2004 and are part of the club’s Community Development programme.
Ownership and finances
That doesn’t mean complacency and playing slow but trying to find the wings and try to cross into the box. The team showed a good mentality coming back from a goal down. This is a tough stadium to come to, we take the point. On the other hand, we know it will be a long season.
Merino reflects on ‘horrible challenge’
Lucky for Mikel Merino he was not injured by the tackle from Moises Caicedo which brought the Chelsea man a red card. “We had four players with yellow cards and you could see they were targeting those players. 💬 “A really tough one, two teams who played with a lot of intensity, aggression and will. It’s also the earliest into a PL campaign Chelsea have had four players sent off. We had one day less to recover, we lost two important players before coming here. “It was a lot of factors (that contributed to the performance).
Gossip: Chelsea to compete with London rivals for Mendozapublished at 06:56 GMT 1 December06:56 GMT 1 December
- In Lampard’s first season, he guided Chelsea to fourth place in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup final, losing 2–1 to Arsenal.
- The deal with Infinite Athlete lasted only one season, and Chelsea started the 2024–25 season again without a primary shirt sponsor.
- A week later, Abramovich wrote-off the £1.5 billion the club owed him, and put the club up for sale, pledging to donate net proceeds from it to the victims of the war in Ukraine.
- In the mid-1970s, the away strip was a red, white and green kit inspired by the Hungarian national side of the 1950s.
- Trevoh Chalobah’s goal was the seventh Chelsea have scored via a corner in the Premier League this season.
- The club were promoted to the Premier Division for the first time in 2005 as Southern Division champions and won the Surrey County Cup nine times between 2003 and 2013.
Chelsea won promotion to the First Division in their second season, and yo-yoed between the First and Second Divisions in its early years. Chelsea have rivalries with fellow London teams Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, and also with Leeds United. They also won the FIFA Club World Cup in 2021 and 2025, the latter being the contest’s first iteration with 32 teams. They went on to win their first UEFA Champions League title in 2012 and repeated the feat in 2021. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, playing their home games at Stamford Bridge.
The graphite and tangerine strip has appeared in lists of the worst football kits ever. This contributed to the club’s original “pensioner” nickname, and remained for the next half-century, though it never appeared on the shirts. In July 2022, it was reported that the club’s new owner Todd Boehly had appointed American architect Janet Marie Smith to oversee the renovation of the stadium. In May 2012, the club made a formal bid to purchase Battersea Power Station, with a view to developing the site into a new stadium, but lost out to a Malaysian consortium. Owing to its location next to a main road and two railway lines, fans can only enter Stamford Bridge via the Fulham Road, which places constraints on expansion due to health and safety regulations.
- The club signed an agreement with Emirati property development company DAMAC Properties in April 2025 to become the team’s shirt sponsor for the balance of the 2024–25 season.
- Sarri then left the club to become manager of Juventus and was replaced by former Chelsea player Frank Lampard.
- In 1982, at the nadir of their fortunes, Chelsea were acquired by Ken Bates from Mears’ great-nephew Brian Mears, for the nominal sum of £1.
- The freehold was sold to property developers and the club were under threat of eviction from the stadium.
- Chelsea’s traditional fanbase comes from all over the Greater London area, including working-class parts such as Hammersmith and Battersea, wealthier areas like Chelsea and Kensington, and from the home counties.
Your reactions to Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal
After a poor start to the 2007–08 season, Mourinho was replaced by Avram Grant, who led the club to their first UEFA Champions League final, which they lost on penalties to Manchester United. Under Mourinho, Chelsea became the fifth English team to win back-to-back league championships since the Second World War (2004–05 and 2005–06), in addition to winning an FA Cup (2007) and two League Cups (2005 and 2007). In the mid-1990s Chelsea fan and businessman Matthew Harding became a director and loaned the club £26 million to build the new North Stand and invest in new players.
Chelsea F.C.
They were FA Cup semi-finalists in 1920 and 1932 and remained in the First Division throughout the 1930s, but success eluded the club in the inter-war years. After winning the UEFA Conference League in 2025, Chelsea became the first club to win all four main UEFA competitions, as well as all UEFA Men’s competitions. They have also won eight FA Cups, five League Cups, and four FA Community Shields, making them the fifth-most successful club in English football. Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, London, England.
Chelsea ‘maturing’ but ‘it’s got to be Arsenal’s title’ – Roundpublished at 13:10 GMT 1 December13:10 GMT 1 December
A strong rivalry with Leeds United dates back to several heated and controversial matches in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the 1970 FA Cup final. In 2007, the club launched the Back to the Shed campaign to improve the atmosphere at home matches, with notable success. As of 2023update, Chelsea has 118.9 million followers on social media, the fourth highest among football clubs.
