Ahead of tomorrow’s 90-minute re-run of our title-clinching 8-0 win over Wigan Athletic on the 5th Stand app, we’re giving Blues fans the chance to decide which of our five Premier League title triumphs you enjoyed most.
Only Manchester United have been more successful than Chelsea since the English top flight was rebranded in 1992. After winning just one title in our first 99 years of existence, the last 16 have yielded five!
Each of those triumphs was obviously very special in its own way, but everyone has their favourite. Take a look below at our reminder of all five of our Premier League title wins and then rank them in order in the poll below.
And while you’re at it, set yourself a reminder for 3pm on Saturday as the 5th Stand will be showing the full 90 minutes of our incredible victory over Wigan Athletic which took place 10 years ago to the day.
2004/05
Some will say the first is always the sweetest, and that may well be true. Jose Mourinho’s maiden campaign as Blues boss could hardly have gone any better, as we lost just one game on our way to recording a then Premier League record points tally of 95. What’s more, we conceded only 15 goals along the way, which remains a record low for the English top flight, and Petr Cech even enjoyed a run of more than 1,000 minutes without letting in a goal!
Cech, of course, was the goalkeeper behind our regular back four comprising newly arrived Portuguese duo Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho, skipper John Terry and William Gallas, who was transformed into one of the league’s top left backs.
A midfield three of Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard and Tiago had a little bit of everything – yes, we even got to see Maka score a goal – and then in attack, Didier Drogba or Eidur Gudjohnsen led the line flanked by Arjen Robben and Damien Duff. Two predominantly left-footed wingers in the same team worked a charm – and Joe Cole offered plenty whenever he played, too – and Mourinho’s 4-3-3 changed English football.
2005/06
Although the end-of-term statistics don’t quite match up with the previous campaign, this Premier League title was undoubtedly the most comfortable of our five. An already stellar team was added to by Michael Essien, who came in for Tiago, and Hernan Crespo providing world-class striking support, while Joe Cole stepped up to enjoy a coming-of-age season.
After six Premier League games we’d won them all without conceding and though we lost to nearest rivals Man United in November, by the end of January our lead at the top was an absurd 14 points. The title was as good as won.
Fittingly, we thrashed the Red Devils at the end of April with a 3-0 victory that confirmed the trophy would be staying at Stamford Bridge and had it not been for a weakened side falling to 1-0 defeats in our final two games, we could have added six points to our final tally of 91, which would have been our best ever.
2009/10
After three years of Manchester United success, the Blues reclaimed the Premier League title at the fourth time of asking – and it took something special to secure the first half of what was to become our maiden league and FA Cup Double.
Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti had a very different side on his hands to the one which enjoyed success under Mourinho. The spine of Cech, JT, Lampard and Drogba was still there, but the parts around them were very different. Now there was the brute force of Branislav Ivanovic, Alex and Ballack; John Mikel Obi’s guile in the Makelele role; Ashley Cole marauding from left-back; and the French-speaking trio of Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou offering sharpness to the attack.
As with our previous two Premier League titles, we started well, but this time there was a winter wobble. What followed the turn of the year, however, was spectacular. Everything clicked in attack as we scored five or more goals in no fewer than five games, including a title-clinching 8-0 triumph over Wigan. A tally of 103 goals was the best the Premier League had seen and Drogba was the league’s top scorer, while Cech kept the most clean sheets.
2014/15
Although five more years passed before we lifted the title again, there was the small matter of a Champions League won in the middle, which more than softened the blow.
Once again, Mourinho was the man at the helm but it was a very different team at his disposal. The emphasis was very much on the collective, though, acknowledged by the fact six players – Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, Terry, Nemanja Matic, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa – were voted by their peers into the PFA Team of the Year. Hazard picked up the main prize for the first time after an exhilarating campaign.
There were other outstanding performers, including Thibaut Courtois in goal and Cesc Fabregas in midfield, while at left-back Cesar Azpilicueta was as reliable as ever. Willian, Oscar, Loic Remy and the returning Didier Drogba added attacking thrust.
We led from start to finish, after recording a victory over Burnley on the opening weekend, and although Man City briefly made it a fight around the turn of the year, we ran away with it to clinch the title following a win over Crystal Palace at the beginning of May. Hazard, rather appropriately, was the man to score the title clincher as we won it with three games to spare.
2016/17
Just like our first Premier League title-winning season, this was a year of tactical revolution in England, sparked by our switch to a 3-4-3 formation which spawned several copycats but none who could truly match an outstanding Blues collective.
Antonio Conte was the man in the dugout by now and he relied on several of the group who had performed so admirably under Mourinho. There was some crucial additions, though. In came David Luiz to play sweeper, while Marcos Alonso was a readymade left wing-back for Conte’s preferred system. However, it was the arrival of N’Golo Kante, who had been the driving force behind Leicester’s surprise triumph the previous year, that sparked our most recent title triumph. The French midfielder swept the board at the end of season awards.
The turning point in the season came in September, when we were trailing 3-0 at Arsenal and a change in formation to 3-5-2 was first implemented. We never looked back from there, winning a club record 13 Premier League games on the bounce, and the title was clinched with two games to spare after Michy Batshuayi netted the winning goal at West Brom. A final tally of 93 points was our second best in a Premier League season.