Chelsea
Full name	Chelsea Football Club
Nickname	The Blues
Founded	1905
Ground	Stamford Bridge, London
Chairman	Roman Abramovich
Manager	José Mourinho
League	FA Premier League
2003-04	Premier League, 2nd

Home colours

Away colours

</table> Chelsea Football Club (also known as the Blues, previously also known as the Pensioners) was founded in 1905, is a Premier League football team that plays at Stamford Bridge football ground in west London. In early 2003, Gianfranco Zola was voted as the best ever foreigner of the team by the Chelsea fans. In July 2003, Chelsea was acquired by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire. British tabloids immediately dubbed the club Chelski. Abramovich used his fortune to wipe out the club's substantial debts at a stroke, and then directed funds towards the acquisition of new players. New signings for the start of the 2003/04 season included the Irish left winger Damien Duff, the Argentinian striker Hernán Crespo, promising English youngsters Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson and Joe Cole and the Argentinian midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who was out of favour at Manchester United. Despite finishing runners-up in Premier League during the 2003-2004 season, manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked on 31 May 2004. José Mourinho was appointed as Manager and Coach on 2 June 2004, one week after managing FC Porto to the Champions League title. Recently since Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea, the club has spent just over £200million with the recent signings of Didier Drogba, Mateja Kezman, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho and Arjen Robben among others.

Honours

• FA Premier League runners-up
  • 2003-04
• Division 1 Champions
  • 1954-55
• Division 2 Champions
  • 1983-84, 1988-89
• Division 2 runners-up
  • 1906-07, 1911-12, 1929-30, 1962-63, 1976-77
• FA Cup winners
  • 1970, 1997, 2000
• FA Cup runners-up
  • 1915, 1967, 1994, 2002
• League Cup winners
  • 1965, 1998
• League Cup runners-up
  • 1972
• Full Members Cup winners
  • 1986, 1990
• Cup Winners' Cup Winners
  • 1970-71, 1997-98
• European Super Cup winners
  • 1998-99
• European Champions League semi-finalists
  • 2004

Famous players

• Roy Bentley
• Frank Blunstone
• Peter Bonetti
• Charlie Cooke
• Joe Cole
• Hernán Crespo
• Marcel Desailly
• Didier Deschamps
• Kerry Dixon
• Roberto Di Matteo
• Damien Duff
• Paul Elliot
• Tore Andre Flo
• Jimmy Greaves
• Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen
• Ruud Gullit
• Ron Harris
• Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
• George Hilsden
• Glenn Hoddle
• John Hollins
• Alan Hudson
• Mark Hughes
• Ian Hutchinson
• Brian Laudrup
• Tommy Lawton
• Frank Leboeuf
• Graeme Le Saux
• Adrian Mutu
• Pat Nevin
• Peter Osgood
• Dan Petrescu
• Bobby Tambling
• Terry Venables
• Juan Sebastian Veron
• Gianluca Vialli
• George Weah
• Ray Wilkins
• Dennis Wise
• Gianfranco Zola

External link

• Official website (http://www.chelseafc.co.uk)
• Chelsea Football Club (http://www.formresponse.co.uk/chelsea_football_club/chelsea_football_club.htm)

<tr> <th align=center colspan=3 style="background:#ccf; font-size:90%">This article is part of the series: Football in England <tr align=center> <td style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%" width=240>League competitions <td rowspan=2 width=80>The FA <td style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%" width=240>Cup competitions <tr align=center> <td>FA Premier League <td>FA Cup <tr align=center> <td>The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) <td rowspan=2>England
team <td>Football League Cup <tr align=center> <td>National League System <td>FA Community Shield <tr align=center> <td>Football Conference (Nat, N, S) <td rowspan=2>List of
clubs <td>Football League Trophy <tr align=center> <td>Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) <td>FA Trophy <tr align=center> <td>Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) <td rowspan=2>Records <td>FA Vase <tr align=center> <td>Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) <td>FA NLS Cup

This article is part of the series: FA Premier League 2004/05
Arsenal | Aston Villa | Birmingham City | Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers | Charlton Athletic | Chelsea | Crystal Palace Everton | Fulham | Liverpool | Manchester City Manchester United | Middlesbrough | Newcastle United | Norwich City Portsmouth | Southampton | Tottenham Hotspur | West Bromwich Albion