In the fifth and final part of our series building up to the new season, club historian Rick Glanvill picks out some Chelsea anniversaries we will be celebrating over the next nine months...
• One-hundred-and-twenty years since Chelsea’s biggest ever league victory – 9-2 at home to Glossop in Division Two, with debutant ‘Gatling Gun’ George Hilsdon netting five.
• Sixty years since a letter from supporter Clifford Webb published in the matchday programme on 7 September 1966 helped popularise a new name for the Fulham Road End at Stamford Bridge – ‘The Shed’.
• Fifty-five years since Chelsea thrashed Luxembourg part-timers Jeunesse Hautcharage 13-0 in the Cup Winners’ Cup at Stamford Bridge on 29 September 1971 – completing a UEFA record 21-0 aggregate victory.
• Ten years since Chelsea’s 5-0 Bonfire Night flaming of Everton at Stamford Bridge on 5 November 2016 was proclaimed the ‘best performance ever seen in the history of the Premier League’ by veteran commentator John Motson.
• Five years since goals from Romelu Lukaku and Kai Havertz beat Palmeiras to earn Chelsea’s first Club World Cup crown on 12 February 2022.
• Fifty-five years since the evergreen Chelsea anthem ‘Blue Is The Colour’ was released on Penny Farthing Records on 18 February 1972, reaching no.5 in the charts – unprecedented for a club song.
• Twenty years since Didier Drogba’s brace against Arsenal on 25 February 2007 at the Millennium Stadium secured the fourth League Cup final victory in Chelsea’s history.
• Seventy years since the first senior men’s match under floodlights at Stamford Bridge – a friendly against Sparta Prague on 19 March 1957.
• One-hundred-and-twenty years since temporary manager William Lewis steered Chelsea to the club’s first-ever promotion to Division One with a 4-0 victory over Wolverhampton on 13 April 1907.
• One hundred and fifty years since the opening of Stamford Bridge as an athletics venue on 28 April 1877, attended by a crowd of 6,000.
• Fifteen years since Roberto Di Matteo’s team beat Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup final on 5 May 2012 with goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba.
• Fifty years since the young and much-loved Chelsea team managed by Eddie McCreadie and led by Ray Wilkins clinched promotion back to Division One with a 1-1 draw at Wolves on 7 May 1977.
• Ten years since Antonio Conte’s barnstorming first season in charge ends with Chelsea, powered by Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Cesc ‘Magic hat’ Fabregas, winning the league for the sixth time at West Brom on 12 May 2017.
• Thirty years since the dawn of a thrilling new era with superstar Ballon d’Or winner Ruud Gullit as coach began with Chelsea winning the FA Cup final against Middlesbrough on 17 May 1997 – our first major silverware for 26 years.
• Fifteen years since the Blues’ Champions League triumph on 19 May 2012 at the home of Bayern Munich, who had unfurled pre-match banners proclaiming ‘Our city, our stadium, our trophy.’ We remain London’s first and only winners of the trophy.
• Twenty years since Didier Drogba scored the winner against Man United on 19 May 2007 (pictured top) to complete Chelsea’s only FA Cup and League Cup double – we were the third club to complete the feat and the first to claim the FA Cup at the new Wembley (having been the last club to do so at the old stadium in 2000).
• Sixty years since Tommy Docherty’s ‘Diamonds’ played the first ever ‘cockney FA Cup final’ at Wembley on 20 May 1967, losing 2-1.
• Ten years since John Terry, Chelsea’s most successful youth product and captain, made his final appearance for the club at home to Sunderland on 21 May 2017.