Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club (/ˈtʃɛlsiː/) are a professional football club based in Fulham, London, who compete in the Premier League. Founded in 1905, the club's home ground since then has been Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had their first major success in 1955, when they won the league championship. They won various cup competitions between 1965 and 1990. The club's greatest period of success has been the last two decades, winning 17 major trophies since 1997. Chelsea have won five league titles, seven FA Cups, five League Cups and four FA Community Shields, one UEFA Champions League, two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, one UEFA Europa League and one UEFA Super Cup. Chelsea are the only London club to win the UEFA Champions League, and one of four clubs, and the only British club, to have won all three main UEFA club competitions.

Chelsea's regular kit colours are royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks. The club's crest has been changed several times in attempts to re-brand the club and modernise its image. The current crest, featuring a ceremonial lion rampant regardant holding a staff, is a modification of the one introduced in the early 1950s. The club have the fifth-highest average all-time attendance in English football. Their average home gate for the 2014–15 season was 41,546, the seventh highest in the Premier League. Since 2003, Chelsea have been owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. In 2015, they were ranked by Forbes magazine as the sixth most valuable football club in the world, at £898 million ($1.37 billion).

2005–06 Chelsea F.C. season

The 2005–06 season was Chelsea F.C.'s 91st competitive season, 14th consecutive season in the Premier League and 100th year as a club. Managed by José Mourinho, Chelsea won the Premier League title for the second consecutive season. They also won the Community Shield.

Chelsea continued spending vast sums of money in their third season under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, signing Michael Essien from Lyon and Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City for more than £20 million each.

In the Champions League, Chelsea aimed to improve upon their second straight semi-final placing the previous year, but exited the competition in the first knockout round to FC Barcelona. In the FA Cup, they managed to improve on their third-round exit in the previous season, but fell short in the semi-final, losing 2–1 to Liverpool. After winning the League Cup in the previous season, they failed to defend their title by taking an early third-round exit to Charlton Athletic on penalties.

2001–02 Chelsea F.C. season

The 2001-02 season was Chelsea F.C.'s 87th competitive season, 10th consecutive season in the Premier League and 96th year as a club.

Season summary

The 2001-02 campaign was the first full season under Italian manager Claudio Ranieri, who had replaced his compatriot Gianluca Vialli after five matches of the previous season. He made his first signing in the shape of French defender William Gallas for £6.2 million from Olympique Marseille, before signing Frank Lampard from West Ham United for £11 million on 14 June. Lampard went on to become Chelsea's highest goal scorer of all time. The signing of Lampard allowed Chelsea to part company with their captain Dennis Wise, who ended his successful 12-season spell at the club by joining Leicester City for £1.6 million. The third and final signing of the window was of French midfielder and 1998 FIFA World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit, who joined from FC Barcelona for £7.5 million on 26 June.

Chelsea players encountered controversy in the second round of the UEFA Cup, when they were due to face Hapoel Tel Aviv on 18 October 2001. Six Chelsea first-team players - Albert Ferrer, William Gallas, Emmanuel Petit, Graeme Le Saux, Eidur Gudjohnsen and captain Marcel Desailly - did not fly to Israel due to fears since the September 11 attacks in the previous month and recent Palestinian insurgency. Chelsea lost the match 2-0, with Desailly's replacement, the Ugandan teenager Joel Kitamirike, making mistakes in his only match for Chelsea. The six players returned for the second leg at Stamford Bridge, but a 1-1 draw saw Chelsea eliminated by an underdog for the second consecutive season.

2006–07 Chelsea F.C. season

The 2006–07 season was Chelsea F.C.'s 92nd competitive season, 15th consecutive season in the Premier League and 101st year as a club. Managed by José Mourinho, the club won both the FA Cup and the League Cup.

The 2006–07 Premier League was decided on matchday 36, after Chelsea failed to win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This left them seven points behind Manchester United with two games to go, confirming Manchester United as league champions.

The season was their fourth under the ownership of Roman Abramovich and Chelsea spent heavily in the transfer market before the season. Notable transactions include the signing of Andriy Shevchenko from Milan for £30 million and Salomon Kalou from Feyenoord for an undisclosed fee. They also added Michael Ballack from Bayern Munich on free transfer and also exchanged William Gallas and £5 million with Arsenal for Ashley Cole.

In the Champions League, Chelsea aimed to improve upon their first knockout round exit in the previous season. They managed to reach the semi-finals for the third time in four seasons, but lost to Liverpool 4–1 on penalties after a 1–1 aggregate. Chelsea also lost the pre season Community Shield to Liverpool at the beginning of the season.

2007–08 Chelsea F.C. season

The 2007–08 season was Chelsea Football Club's 93rd competitive season, 16th consecutive season in the Premier League, and 102nd year as a club. Manager José Mourinho left the club by mutual consent on 20 September 2007 following a disappointing 1–1 draw with Rosenborg and was replaced by the Israeli Avram Grant.

The 2007–08 Premier League season was decided on the last day of the season, when Chelsea needed to win against Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United to either draw or lose against Wigan Athletic. Chelsea drew 1–1 and Manchester United won 2–0, thus making Chelsea runners-up to United for the second consecutive season.

Chelsea played in their first UEFA Champions League Final, against Manchester United, making it the first all-English final in the competition's history. After extra time the score was 1–1; Manchester United won the penalty shootout 6–5 after Edwin van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka's penalty.

This was the first time in four years that Chelsea had finished the season without a trophy; the lack of silverware led to Avram Grant being sacked three days after the Champions League final. Five days later, Chelsea's assistant first-team coach, Henk ten Cate, had his contract terminated as well.

2004–05 Chelsea F.C. season

The 2004–05 season was Chelsea F.C.'s 90th competitive season, 13th consecutive season in the Premier League and 99th year as a club. Managed by José Mourinho during his first season at the club, Chelsea won the Premier League title (their first league title in 50 years) and the League Cup. The season was also notable for the number of records set during the season: Fewest goals against in a Premier League season (15), most clean sheets kept in a season (25), most wins in a season (29), most consecutive away wins (9) and the most points in a season (95).

After missing out on the league title to the unbeaten Arsenal in the previous season, Chelsea continued spending large sums of money in order to build a squad capable of challenging for honours. They were in their second season under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, enabling them to sign five players for more than £10 million each, including Ivorian striker Didier Drogba from Marseille and defender Ricardo Carvalho from Mourinho's former club, Porto. Portuguese defender Paulo Ferreira also followed Mourinho to Chelsea from Porto.

APOEL FC

APOEL FC (Greek: ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias, "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a professional football club based in Nicosia, Cyprus. APOEL is the most popular football team in Cyprus and they are the most successful with an overall tally of 24 championships, 21 cups and 13 super cups.

APOEL's greatest moment in the European competitions occurred in the season 2011–12, when the club participated in the group stages of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League (along with F.C. Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit St. Petersburg) and achieved qualification for the quarter-finals of the competition by topping the group and eliminating Olympique Lyonnais in the last 16, becoming the only Cypriot club to reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. APOEL's European competitions highlights include also appearances in the group stages of the 2009–10 & 2014–15 UEFA Champions League and the group stages of the 2013–14 & 2015–16 UEFA Europa League. APOEL is the only Cypriot club who have reached the group stages of both major UEFA competitions (UEFA Champions League & UEFA Europa League).