Next season’s Premier League fixtures were announced in full this morning, with the Blues hosting Palace at Stamford Bridge when our campaign gets under way on Sunday 17 August, before travelling away to West Ham United for our first match on the road the following week.

The Eagles also made the short trip to the Bridge for the opening game of the 2021/22 season, on a memorable day which saw Marcos Alonso and Christian Pulisic fire us into the lead, before an emotional Academy graduate Trevoh Chalobah brought the house down by drilling in his first Chelsea goal on his home debut to complete a 3-0 win for the Blues.

More of the same against Palace at the Bridge in our first match of 2025/26 would certainly be a welcome start to the campaign, but in the meantime whet your appetite by recalling some of our most famous opening-day victories in the Premier League...

Chelsea 4-0 Sunderland, 1999/00

Despite a run of four years without an opening day win, confidence was high at Chelsea going into the 1999/00 campaign, after Gianluca Vialli’s side had mounted a serious title challenge the previous season.

There was nothing to dampen the feeling of optimism on the first day of the campaign either, as the Blues thoroughly dismantled Sunderland at Stamford Bridge.

From the moment Gustavo Poyet headed in the opening goal there seemed little doubt of the outcome and we soon raced further ahead with strikes by Gianfanco Zola and Tore Andre Flo.

The icing on the cake then arrived when Zola and Poyet combined for a truly iconic fourth goal, the Italian scooping an audacious pass over the Sunderland defence for Gus to leap and connect with an equally spectacular scissor-kick volley. What a start!

Chelsea 4-2 West Ham United, 2000/01

Premier League debuts don’t get much better than the one enjoyed by Mario Stanic at Stamford Bridge on the first day of the 2000/01 season, in one of the most spectacular entrances ever made by a Chelsea player.

A summer arrival from Italian side Parma, the Croatian midfielder was thrust straight into the line-up by Vialli. Stanic rewarded his manager in style.

Reliable favourites Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Zola had already secured a 2-1 lead for Chelsea when Stanic announced himself onto the scene in spectacular fashion.

As if his incredible first Blues goal – featuring a display of ball juggling before a 35-yard volley fired into the top corner – wasn’t enough, he headed in his second late on for good measure.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United, 2004/05

The Blues were still waiting to end our 50-year wait for a second top-flight league title as the 2004/05 season got under way with the tricky prospect of a visit from Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

We had a new man in our own dugout, though – a certain Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese manager knew a thing or two about winning, and demonstrated it as his team laid down an early season marker.

The likes of future club legends Petr Cech and Didier Drogba were making their Chelsea debuts following a busy summer, but it was a longer-serving member of the squad who decided the match in our favour, as Eidur Gudjohnsen netted the only goal of the game.

It wasn’t always pretty, but it was a warning shot to the rest of the Premier League that Chelsea meant business this year. Not that our rivals could do much to stop us, as come May the Blues were hoisting the trophy into the air at the end of a record-breaking campaign.

Chelsea 6-0 West Bromwich Albion, 2010/11

After an incredible 2009/10 season, which saw us recording a series of high-scoring victories – including our biggest ever in the Premier League – on our way to claiming the club’s first domestic Double, it looked like the Blues hadn’t lost any of that swagger over the summer.

Just as had been the case for so many teams the previous season, West Brom simply had no answer to the cutting edge displayed by Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea at the Bridge at the start of 2010/11.

The contest was effectively already over by half-time, after Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba had given us a two-goal lead over our newly-promoted opponents. There was no taking our foot off the gas, though, as the Blues gave the Baggies a harsh lesson on what is required to compete in the Premier League.

By the end of the game, Drogba had completed his hat-trick and Malouda had made it a brace, with Frank Lampard adding his name to the scoresheet for an absolutely thumping victory for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Burnley 1-3 Chelsea, 2014/15

After narrowly missing out on the title the previous season, it was hoped that two key signings would fix the weakness which had cost us in the Premier League as the action returned for 2014/15.

The plan was that the firepower of Diego Costa and the creativity of Cesc Fabregas would allow us to break down stubborn opponents camped around their own box, something which had posed serious problems for the Blues during the first year of Mourinho's second spell in the dugout.

With the campaign beginning away at Sean Dyche's notoriously physical and newly-promoted Burnley, that theory would be tested right away, but it was a test Chelsea passed with flying colours, despite going behind after 14 minutes.

Any hopes of a famous upset at Turf Moor were soon dismissed, as Chelsea's plan began to bear fruit. Just three minutes after Burnley's opener, Diego Costa showed a poacher's instincts to equalise with a debut goal for the Blues. Four minutes after that Fabregas did his thing, with an absolutely stunning first-time pass to allow Andre Schurrle to put us in the lead.

By half-time Branislav Ivanovic had extended our advantage - Fabregas's assist, of course - and Burnley knew they were well beaten. They weren't the only team to suffer that fate at Chelsea's hands that season, as we would end the campaign eight-points clear at the top of the table as Premier League champions.

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