Chelsea
The club
Chelsea were founded on 10 March 1905 and have played at Stamford Bridge, in Fulham in west London, ever since. The ground holds 40,044, the smallest of any established member of the Premier League's top group. The club are the Blues and play in royal blue shirts, blue shorts and white socks. BlueCo have owned the club since 2022, with Todd Boehly as chairman.
Recent seasons
Chelsea were fourth in the Premier League in 2020/21 with 67 points and won the Champions League that season. They were third in 2021/22 with 74 points and losing finalists in both the FA Cup and the League Cup. The Boehly era then produced a collapse to 12th in 2022/23 with 44 points, followed by sixth in 2023/24 with 63 and fourth in 2024/25 with 69. They won the UEFA Conference League in 2025 and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.
The 2025/26 season went badly wrong. Enzo Maresca left on 1 January 2026, Calum McFarlane took caretaker charge for a week, Liam Rosenior was in post from 8 January to 22 April, and McFarlane returned as interim manager for the run-in. Chelsea finished tenth with 52 points from 38 games: 14 wins, 10 draws, 14 defeats, 58 goals scored and 52 conceded. Joao Pedro was top scorer with 15 in the league and 20 in all competitions. They went out of the Champions League in the round of 16 and lost in the League Cup semi-finals. The best of the season was the FA Cup: Chelsea reached the final, winning at Charlton Athletic in the third round on 10 January 2026 on the way, and lost 1-0 to Manchester City at Wembley on 16 May 2026 before 83,337, Antoine Semenyo scoring in the 72nd minute from an Erling Haaland cross. Tenth place left the club out of European competition altogether for 2026/27, only the second time since 2022 they have had no continental football.
Honours and landmarks
Chelsea have won six league titles, in 1954/55, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2009/10, 2014/15 and 2016/17, and the Second Division twice, in 1983/84 and 1988/89. They have won eight FA Cups, in 1970, 1997, 2000, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2018, and five League Cups, in 1965, 1998, 2005, 2007 and 2015, plus four Community Shields, in 1955, 2000, 2005 and 2009.
In Europe they have won the Champions League twice, in 2012 and 2021, the Europa League twice, in 2013 and 2019, the Cup Winners' Cup twice, in 1971 and 1998, the UEFA Super Cup in 1998 and 2021, and the Conference League in 2025, the only English club to have won all four current UEFA competitions. They have won the FIFA Club World Cup twice, in 2021 and 2025, and the Full Members' Cup in 1986 and 1990.
Record attendance is 82,905 against Arsenal in the First Division on 12 October 1935; the highest recorded crowd at the ground was an estimated 100,000 for a friendly against Dynamo Moscow on 13 November 1945, and the record since the ground was redeveloped is 59,541 against AC Milan on 16 February 1966. Ron Harris holds the appearance record with 795 games between 1961 and 1980, ahead of Peter Bonetti on 729 and John Terry on 717. Frank Lampard is the record scorer with 211 goals in 648 games between 2001 and 2014; Jimmy Greaves holds the single-season record with 43 in 1960/61. Record fee received is £89m for Eden Hazard to Real Madrid in 2019. Record fee paid is £117m for Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa in July 2026.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 13-0 against Jeunesse Hautcharage in the Cup Winners' Cup on 29 September 1971. Biggest league win: 8-0, achieved against Wigan Athletic on 9 May 2010 and matched against Aston Villa on 23 December 2012. Heaviest defeat: 1-8 against Wolverhampton Wanderers, though no date is given in the records that were read. The most recent match of consequence is the 1-0 FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City on 16 May 2026.
Head-to-head notes
Chelsea do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and the reference archives that carry them blocked automated access, so no all-time record against a 2026/27 opponent is established here. What can be stated from last season: Arsenal won the title with 85 points, Manchester City were second on 78 and Manchester United third on 71, all three finishing well clear of Chelsea's 52. Fulham, the opponents in Chelsea's opening fixture, finished 11th on 52 points, level with Chelsea and separated only on goal difference. Manchester City beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final on 16 May 2026. Three clubs are new to the division this season: Coventry City came up as champions, with Ipswich Town and Hull City, replacing West Ham United, Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Right now (2026/27)
Xabi Alonso was appointed head coach on 17 May 2026, the day after the FA Cup final, on a four-year contract running from 1 July 2026. He had left Real Madrid by mutual consent on 12 January 2026, the day after losing the Supercopa de Espana final 3-2 to Barcelona, and before that had won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double with Bayer Leverkusen in 2024 during an unbeaten run of 51 matches.
The rebuild has been expensive. Right-back Marco Palestra joined from Atalanta for £43m and striker Emmanuel Emegha from Strasbourg for £22m, both on 1 July 2026. Winger Geovany Quenda arrived from Sporting CP for £40m on 8 July. Morgan Rogers signed from Aston Villa for £117m on 21 July, a club record fee, and centre-back Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace for £52m on 30 July. Harrison Bettoni joined the academy free from Wigan Athletic on 23 July. Alejandro Garnacho arrived on loan from Aston Villa on 23 July. Going the other way, Marc Cucurella joined Real Madrid for £47.5m on 1 July, Andrey Santos went to Manchester United for £48m on 13 July, Tyrique George to Everton for £18m on 6 July and Jimmy-Jay Morgan to West Bromwich Albion for £4m on 18 June. A long list of academy players went out on loan, including Harrison Murray-Campbell to Kortrijk, Jesse Derry to Sporting CP, Kaiden Wilson to Rochdale, Max Merrick to Hartlepool United, Hudson Sands to Dulwich Hamlet and Ollie Harrison to AFC Wimbledon.
Pre-season is being played largely abroad, the Premier League starting late because of the World Cup. Chelsea beat Western Sydney Wanderers 6-4 in the Sydney Super Cup on 28 July 2026, and face Tottenham Hotspur in Sydney on 1 August, Juventus in Hong Kong on 5 August, AC Milan on 8 August, Johor Darul Ta'zim on 9 August and Real Sociedad on 15 August. The competitive season is the Premier League, the FA Cup, which they enter in the third round, and the EFL Cup, which they enter in the second round, with no European football. The league campaign opens away to Fulham on 24 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Chelsea_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Chelsea_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FA_Cup_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xabi_Alonso
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.