The Premier League 2023/24

The campaign will start five days later than last season on 11 August, and conclude nine days earlier on Sunday 19 May. Matchweek 21 fixtures will be split between the weekend of 13/14 and 20/21 January to allow each club a two-week break.

• Pre-Season Briefing part one

• Reece, your dream will come true...

• It's the quarter-finals next...

The season kicks off with visitors who are big rivals – and also the victims when the Blues racked up our second biggest ever top-flight victory on the opening day. When Liverpool played at Stamford Bridge on 28 August 1937 they were thrashed 6-1, with George Mills grabbing a hat-trick. Our greatest margin of victory to start a season was 6-0, against Robbie Di Matteo’s newly-promoted West Bromwich on 14 August 2010.

In terms of the top-flight's fresh arrivals for 2023/24, Burnley are back after an absence of one season, Sheffield United have been away just two, but Luton Town return after 31years below.

The Hatters took part in the negotiations to set up the new Premier League format in 1992 but lost their golden ticket through relegation that year. As a result they are the competition’s first totally new entrants since Brentford in 2020. Their Kenilworth Road stadium (capacity 10,356) will undercut Bournemouth’s (11,307) as the smallest in the top flight. Leeds, Leicester and Southampton are no longer with us.

All-time points in the Premier League

European football

For only the second time since 1997/98 there will be no European football at Stamford Bridge this season.

Total European/World Cup trophies won

The FA Cup

2023/24 will be the 143rd edition of this competition. Chelsea’s record run of four consecutive appearances in the FA Cup final ended last season with a round three loss to Manchester City (who also beat the Blues in the Carabao Cup). That was the second successive season we had gone out to the same club in both major domestic trophies.

Only Manchester United (20) and Arsenal (21) have reached the final on more occasions than Chelsea’s 15. The Blues have not won this competition since 2017/18 under Antonio Conte.

FA Cup round dates

Round 3 Sat 6 Jan 2024
Round 4 Sat 27 Jan 2024
Round 5 Wed 28 Feb 2024
Quarter-finals Sat 16 Mar 2024
Semi-finals Sat 20 Apr 2024
FA Cup final Sat 25 May 2024

• NB All fixtures except final may be moved for live TV.

Chelsea’s recent record in the FA Cup

2022/23 Round three

2021/22 Runners-up

2020/21 Runners-up

2019/20 Runners-up

2018/19 Round 5

2017/18 Winners

The Carabao Cup

The Blues will also be looking to improve on last season’s exit at the first opportunity in the Carabao Cup. Our 64th League Cup campaign will start in Round two for the first time since 23 August 2016, when Bristol Rovers were beaten 3-2 at the Bridge thanks to a Michy Batshuayi brace. We host AFC Wimbledon this time around.

Chelsea have not won this competition since 2014/15 under Jose Mourinho, our longest stretch since 1998.

Carabao Cup round dates

Round 1 w/c 7 Aug 2023
Round 2 w/c 28 Aug 2023
Round 3 w/c 25 Sep 2023
Round 4 w/c 30 Oct 2023
Quarter-final w/c 18 Dec 2023
Semi-final (1st leg) w/c 8 January 2024
Semi-final (2nd leg) w/c 21 January 2024
Carabao Cup final Sun 25 Feb 2024

• NB All fixtures except final may be moved for live TV.

Chelsea’s recent record in the League Cup

2022/23 Round 3

2021/22 Runners-up

2020/21 Round 4

2019/20 Round 4

2018/19 Runners-up

2017/18 Semi-finalists

Rules and regulations

Changes to laws and guidance will be implemented in Howard Webb’s first full season as chief refereeing officer, chiefly to clamp down on dissent and time-wasting, leading to longer stoppage time.

Extra minutes will be added more readily for injuries, substitutions and goal celebrations judged excessive, and cautions delivered for kicking the ball away after an infringement. There will also be less tolerance of unsporting goalkeeper antics when facing a penalty.

However, referees have been told to exercise more leniency on physicality in challenges, and when a player denies an opponent a goalscoring opportunity in the penalty box. If the official feels a genuine attempt was made to play the ball a yellow card rather than red will apply. In offside decisions, new guidance aims to clarify whether a defending player has deliberately played the ball or accidentally deflected it.

Only one coach is now permitted in the technical area and anyone shown a red card must retreat out of sight of the pitch rather than into a stand. Semi-Automated Offside Technology will not be implemented this season, but clubs have agreed to install more cameras to increase the variety of angles available to VARs.

Supporters should also note that offensive, tragedy-related chants will be severely punished.

Chelsea's all-time top-flight league record

Played 3,550
Won 1,457
Drawn 914
Lost 1,179
Goals 5,450
Against 4,926
Goal difference +524

Thirty years of fixed squad numbers

At the start of the 1993/94 season, Premier League players ran out wearing a shirt number allocated for the season for the first time. Since the late 1930s they had worn 1-11 (12 for a sub) according to their position on the field, though in later years this had become far less strict.

Of the 13 Blues players involved against Blackburn at the Bridge on 14 August 1993, the highest number was that of Scots left-back Andy Dow. His 26 would become more famously associated with an Academy graduate who took it on five years later: John Terry.

• Chelsea 2023/24 squad numbers