History of Chelsea F.C. (2003–2022)

Under the stewardship of former player Roberto Di Matteo, the club won a seventh FA Cup in 2012, before winning their first UEFA Champions League title.

[5] He then went on a £100 million spending spree before the start of the season and landed players like Claude Makélélé, Geremi, Hernán Crespo, Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole and Damien Duff.

[citation needed] Chelsea's title campaign gradually picked up momentum, driven by the high-scoring Frank Lampard and the return from injury of talented young Dutch winger Arjen Robben.

[citation needed] A record-breaking defence, led by captain John Terry and his new partnership with Ricardo Carvalho, the versatile William Gallas, fullback Paulo Ferreira, midfield linchpin Claude Makélélé and goalkeeper Petr Čech, provided the backbone of the side, conceding just 15 goals all season and keeping 25 clean sheets[citation needed] while Čech went a Premier League-record 1,025 minutes without conceding a goal.

[19] In the quarter-finals, a 4–2 home win over German champions Bayern Munich and a 3–2 loss in Germany were enough to ensure passage through to the semi-finals, where they faced Liverpool.

[20] Following a 0–0 draw at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool went 1–0 up at Anfield thanks to Luis García and Chelsea were unable to break down a resilient defence, thus missing out on the chance of a treble.

[37] Despite the managerial upheaval and a high level of player absence (in all, members of the team were unavailable for selection 286 times in the 62 fixtures),[38] Chelsea were on course to win three different competitions, a feat previously achieved by only two other English clubs, Liverpool in 1983–84 and Manchester United in 1998–99, but ultimately finished as runners-up in all three.

[citation needed] Chelsea reached their third League Cup final in four years, but suffered a surprise 2–1 defeat to mid-table Tottenham at Wembley.

[43] In an even game, Lampard's first-half strike cancelled out Cristiano Ronaldo's opener, and the teams remained at 1–1 for the rest of the match, taking the final to a penalty shootout, where John Terry and Nicolas Anelka's misses from the spot gave United victory.

[46] Grant's replacement was Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, who had guided Brazil to victory at the 2002 World Cup and Portugal to runners-up at UEFA Euro 2004.

Under Hiddink, performances and results improved; Chelsea lost just one more game all season, eventually finishing third in the league and reaching the FA Cup Final.

The game ended in a 2–2 draw, with Chelsea winning 4–1 on penalties to take the trophy, the club's first victory in a shoot-out since beating Ipswich Town in the League Cup in January 1998.

[79] The good run of form under Di Matteo continued when Chelsea progressed to the semi-final of the FA Cup after beating Leicester City 5–2 at Stamford Bridge.

Despite Liverpool halving the deficit with an Andy Carroll strike, Chelsea held out to win their seventh FA Cup, largely thanks to heroics from goalkeeper Petr Čech, who pulled off an exceptional save to narrowly deny Andy Carroll an equaliser; this was Chelsea's fourth success in the competition in six seasons[85] and the best record of any club in the competition since Wanderers won it five times in seven years in the nineteenth century.

[102] In the close season Chelsea signed midfielder Cesc Fàbregas from Barcelona, striker Diego Costa from Atlético Madrid, and Kurt Zouma from Saint-Étienne.

[103] Thibaut Courtois was also recalled from his loan at Atlético Madrid, and David Luiz was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £50 million, a world record for a defender.

[104] Meanwhile, club favourites Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Juan Mata left with César Azpilicueta and Oscar being preferred by Mourinho.

[108] However, they would be knocked in the FA Cup fourth round by League One side Bradford City after they led an unexpected comeback at Stamford Bridge to win the game 2–4, and give Chelsea their first loss at home during the entire season.

On 17 December, Mourinho was sacked by the club after a defeat to eventual champions Leicester City which had left Chelsea one point ahead of the relegation zone after 16 games, the worst start to a season since 1978.

[118] However, Premier League form improved, with Chelsea rising from 16th, one point away from relegation in December 2015, to eleventh place by February 2016 after a fightback from going 1–0 down to win 2–1 at Southampton.

[128] N'Golo Kanté and Marcos Alonso were both signed in the summer whilst David Luiz and Victor Moses re-joined the club to play key roles.

[135] The silver lining in the season was the FA Cup win in which a solitary goal from Eden Hazard sealed the Blues' victory over Manchester United at Wembley.

[139] Maurizio Sarri's first season started well with a 12 match unbeaten run in the Premier League, including 4–0 wins at home to Burnley and a 1–1 draw with eventual second-place finishers Liverpool.

[140] However, a dip in form around February meant that a title challenge was out of the question along with a defeat at home in the fifth round of the FA Cup to Manchester United.

[144] The club also made their way to the final of the Europa League, in which they beat Arsenal 4–1 on 29 May 2019 with goals from Hazard, Olivier Giroud and Pedro resulting in their first European trophy since 2013.

He was accused of failing to tell senior club staff about a sexual conduct allegation concerning Heath made by the parent of a young player.

[161][162] Ahead of the 2020-21 Premier League, Chelsea spent £200 million on players such as Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Thiago Silva, Édouard Mendy, and Ben Chilwell.

[171] Chelsea won the Champions League for the second time after beating Manchester City 1–0 on May 29, 2021, at Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal with Kai Havertz scoring the winner.

[183][184] Following the sanctions placed on Roman Abramovich, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe made a £4.25 billion bid to buy the club but this was rejected.

[189] In the following weeks, reports emerged of Abramovich's involvement in brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia and securing safe evacuation corridors in besieged Ukrainian cities.