History of Chelsea FC

Chelsea Football Club is an English Football Association that is based in Fulham, West London. It was founded in 1905. The club gained their reputation by buying and signing big players and attracting large crowds but rather failed to win major titles for the fifty years. Their first thirty out of the first forty seasons were spent in the First Division and sometimes found themselves in the mid-table or struggling with relegation.

Chelsea’s closest lead to winning a title was in the FA Cup of 1915 where they finished as runners-up and losing out as semi-finalists in 1911, 1920, 1932, 1950 and 1952. This trend was finally broken with the coming of a new manager Ted Drake who changes to the team which led to their winning the League Championship in 1955.

Chelsea’s challenge for honours and titles increased between the 1963 and 1972 and most times they usually missed out narrowly. They won the League Cup in 1965, the FA Cup in 1970 and later the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971. Chelsea was also the FA Cup runners-up in 1967 and League Cup runners-up in 1972. The club nearly went into extinction due to several burdens caused by their ambition to rebuild Stamford Bridge. This however was reverted by the coming of John Neal in the mid-1980s the club won the Second Division title thereby establishing themselves in the top flight.

Also with the leadership under Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli between 1996 and 2000 had Chelsea winning the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000. They also won the League Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1998 and also qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. Chelsea FC has not finished outside of the first ten of the English Premier League since the 1995-1996.

The club was ushered into another phase of glory in 2003 when it was bought over by Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich. The club manager, Jose Mourinho won two league titles for the club, and FA Cup and two league Cups in three seasons. The club further won and FA Cup in 2009 and their first league and FA Cup double in 2010. Under the leadership of their former player, Roberto Di Matteo won the seventh FA Cup before going to win their first every UEFA Champions League title.

On the 3rd of June 2013, Chelsea FC appointed Jose Mourinho as the club manager for the second time under a four-year contract. In his first year 2013-2014, the club did not win any silverware for the first time since 2010-2011, however Mourinho said it was a transitional season for the club. In the following season, the club won the Premier League title with an eight-point lead ahead of the first runners-up, Manchester City. 2015-2016 however saw poor performance from the Premier League Champions and scandals on the part of Mourinho. From August to December, Chelsea only won 5 of their 19 games and on the 17th of December Jose  Mourinho was sacked.

Guus Hiddink was appointed as the caretaker of the club for the remaining part of 2015-2016. With Mourinho’s sack, the club went on 12 consecutive matches without a loss having 6 wins and 6 draws. This however ended in February 16, 2016 with a loss to Paris Saint-Germain at the first leg of the round of 16 for UEFA Champions League. They also lost the second leg losing 2-1 and got eliminated from the competition on March 9. This was followed by elimination from the FA Cup on March 12 after a 2-0 loss to Everton.

Their league form improved after moving from the 16th position (a point away from relegation) to the 8th position after tough fight. 2016 so far has been a challenging year for Chelsea FC. The club got a new coach, Antonio Conte in March 2016. He is to take charge of the 2016-2017 season.

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