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Chelsea
Chelsea Football Club (also known as The Blues or previously The Pensioners) are a professional English football club based in west London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier in English football. They have had two broad periods of success, one during the 1960s and early 1970s, and the second from the late 1990s to the present day. Chelsea have won three league titles, four FA Cups, four League Cups, two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, and have reached one UEFA Champions League final.
Chelsea's home is the 42,055-person capacity Stamford Bridge football stadium in Fulham, West London, where they have played since their establishment. Despite their name, the club are based just outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In 2003, the club was bought by Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich.
The club's traditional kit colours are royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks. Their traditional crest is a ceremonial blue lion holding a staff; a modified version of this was adopted in 2005.
Chelsea News
In June 2003, Bates sold Chelsea to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for ?140 million, completing what was then the biggest-ever sale of an English football club. Owing to Abramovich's Russian heritage, the club were soon popularly dubbed "Chelski" in the British media. Over ?100 million was spent on new players, but Ranieri was unable to deliver any trophies, so he was replaced by successful Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, who had just guided FC Porto to victory in the UEFA Champions League.
In 2005, Chelsea's centenary year, the club became Premiership champions in a record-breaking season (most clean sheets, fewest goals conceded, most victories, most points earned),League Cup winners with a 3 - 2 win over Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium and reached the Champions League semi-finals. The following year, they were again League Champions, equalling their own Premiership record of 29 wins set the previous season. They also became the fifth team to win back-to-back championships since the Second World War and the first London club to do so since Arsenal in 1933 - 34. In 2007, Chelsea won the FA Cup and League Cup, but finished runners-up to Manchester United in the Premier League. On 20 September 2007, Mourinho parted company with Chelsea and was replaced by Israeli Director of Football Avram Grant, under whom the club finished as runners-up in the Premier League and the League Cup, and reached their first UEFA Champions League final, where they lost on penalties to Manchester United. On 24 May 2008, Grant's contract was terminated. On 11 June 2008, it was announced that Luiz Felipe Scolari would be taking over as manager on 1 July 2008.
Chelsea have recorded several "firsts" in English football. Along with Arsenal, they were the first club to play with shirt numbers on 25 August 1928 in their match against Swansea Town. Chelsea were the first English side to travel by aeroplane to a domestic away match, when they visited Newcastle United on 19 April 1957, and the first First Division side to play a match on a Sunday, when they faced Stoke City on 27 January 1974. On 26 December 1999, Chelsea became the first British side to field an entirely foreign (non-UK) starting line-up in a Premier League match against Southampton. On 19 May 2007, they became the first team to win the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium, having also been the last to win it at the old Wembley. After the conclusion of the 2007/2008 season, Chelsea became the highest ranked club under UEFA's five-year coefficient system used in the seeding of European club competitions in the following season.
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