However, the stadium is sometimes still referred to as part of “Chelsea Village” or “The Village”. The intention was that these facilities would provide extra revenue to support the football side of the business, but they were less successful than hoped and before the Abramovich takeover in 2003 the debt taken on to finance them was a major burden on the club. In 1904, the ground was acquired by businessman Gus Mears and his brother Joseph, who had purchased nearby land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of staging football matches on the now 12.5 acre (51,000 m2) site.
Maresca on team news, Sanchez’s improvement and Leedspublished at 11:00 GMT11:00 GMT
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.
Counter-attacks nearly paid off for Chelsea
- We had one day less to recover, we lost two important players before coming here.
- 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.
- The club have consistently affirmed their desire to keep Chelsea at their current home, but have nonetheless been linked with a move to various nearby sites, including the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Battersea Power Station and the Chelsea Barracks.
- They went on to win their first UEFA Champions League title in 2012 and repeated the feat in 2021.
- 💬 “They are a really good team, they have scored seven goals with corners and we have scored eight.
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.
Abramovich ownership (2003–
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.
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.
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.
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.
Merino reflects on ‘horrible challenge’
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.
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.
Sponsorship
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.
Other players under contract
- Chelsea have rivalries with fellow London teams Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, and also with Leeds United.
- For the centenary season this was accompanied by the words ‘100 Years’ and ‘Centenary 2005–2006’ on the top and bottom of the crest respectively.
- In 1953, the club crest was changed to an upright blue lion looking backwards and holding a staff.
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
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).
How bold Chelsea showed they have grown in maturitypublished at 12:16 GMT12:16 GMT
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 Chelsea House Review tangible progress from his team as they keep pressure on at the top of the table.
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.
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.
