It wasn’t until September 1949 that the sides met in the First Division for the first time, when a Billy Gray goal bagged a point for Chelsea at Craven Cottage.

Five more encounters followed – four won by the Blues - before Fulham were relegated in 1952. The Whites’ elevation back to the First Division seven years later reunited the clubs, and they would prove regular sparring partners in the sixties as club legends like Peter Osgood, Ron Harris, Johnny Haynes and George Cohen faced up.

Chelsea remained the dominant force.

However, when Fulham were again relegated at the end of the 1967/68 campaign, it would be nearly 35 years before the local rivals contested a top-flight league fixture again. In the interim, a sprinkling of Division Two games and one League Cup tie was all that Chelsea and Fulham fans could get excited about.

The footballing landscape had changed significantly by the time Jean Tigana steered the Cottagers to the Division One title in 2000/01. The top flight was now known as the Premiership, with Chelsea ever-present since its inception in 1992 and established as a major force in the English game.

The fixture list sent us west along the Fulham Road in September 2001, when a Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink goal was cancelled out by Barry Hayles. The terracing at the Hammersmith End harked back to fixtures of yesteryear.

However, when Fulham made the return journey in March 2002, they found a very different Stamford Bridge to the one they had last played at in 1985.

Three of the four stands had been entirely redeveloped, and the stadium was now all-seater, in line with league regulations that necessitated Fulham temporarily relocating to Loftus Road later that year while the Cottage was upgraded.

Chelsea came into the midweek game off the back of a disappointing last-minute defeat to Charlton at the Valley, and with our aspirations of qualifying for the Champions League hanging by a thread.

Fulham, meanwhile, were sitting pretty in tenth place having impressed on their return to the top flight. The likes of Steve Finnan, Andy Melville, Luis Boa Morte and Louis Saha looked right at home in the Premiership, while new signings Edwin van der Sar, Steed Malbranque and Sylvain Legwinski added star quality.

Chelsea midfielder Emmanuel Petit had played under Tigana at Monaco, so he was well placed to preview the game on the official Chelsea website.

‘For the first year in the Premier League they are doing very, very well,’ said Petit. ‘There are a lot of things to come from them, they have to improve, but I'm sure Jean Tigana knows about that and he tries to build a big team for next season.

‘He used to be the kind of player who wants to play. He was a very hard midfield player, he was running everywhere on the pitch, but every time he got the ball he tried to play properly. Simply but properly. He was efficient on the pitch, and as a manager he wants to do the same with his players.’

Chelsea’s defence resumed a familiar look as Marcel Desailly returned from his recent hamstring strain to partner William Gallas. Gianfranco Zola and Petit came in for Jody Morris and the suspended Mario Stanic. Former Blue Jon Harley started for the visitors.

Claudio Ranieri’s Blues lined up in a 4-diamond-2 formation: Cudicini; Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro; Petit, Lampard, Le Saux, Zola; Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen.

What followed was a thrilling west London derby that made onlookers wish there had been more in the previous 20 years.

Fulham defender Abdeslam Ouaddou had already thudded a header against the crossbar when Mario Melchiot beat Van der Sar from distance with the aid of a slight deflection. It was the right-back’s third Chelsea goal, and his first not scored against Man United.

What had been a simmering contest heated up considerably. Within seconds of Chelsea taking the lead, Gallas was adjudged to have made contact with Saha fractionally before he toed the ball away. Fulham were awarded a penalty and it was Saha who stepped up to take it, calmly stroking the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.

Van der Sar pulled off a fine save from Zola, deployed at the tip of the diamond, before Chelsea again took the lead with a goal fashioned from simple but sublime passing. Cutting right through the heart of the Fulham team, Petit fed Zola, who moved the ball onto Graeme Le Saux. He then played Gudjohnsen through and the striker cut in front of the Fulham defence and slotted the ball home with the minimum of fuss (pictured top).

Fulham came close to equalising again through Malbranque, Ouaddou and Saha, all of whom passed up presentable opportunities. However, Saha made no mistake in the 72nd minute, bundling a loose ball over the line after we had failed to clear Rufus Brevett’s cross.

There was still time for one final twist ten minutes later. Two Chelsea substitutes combined to great effect as Jesper Gronkjaer’s lofted cross was controlled on his chest by Mikael Forssell and turned past Van der Sar from eight yards out.

The Finnish striker’s winning goal was his eighth of the season. Remarkably, all had been scored when he had come off the bench.

‘It was very important to win tonight,’ stated Ranieri after our 3-2 success. ‘But it was a very difficult game. Fulham played very well. In the first half, Chelsea played well, it was good for us, like champagne. Everybody wanted to hit everything. But in the second half, it was very difficult for us to win.’

Almost 40,000 people had been treated to a local derby befitting of the occasion, the first at Stamford Bridge in a generation. A few days later, both sides won their FA Cup quarter-final ties and were pitted against one another in the semis, when a much more turgid encounter ended 1-0 to Chelsea.

The Chelsea vs Fulham rivalry had well and truly restarted. We wait to see what will be written in tomorrow’s chapter.

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