Premier League Club by Club Preview: Chelsea

Last Season: 6th.
Well to say Chelsea's league performance was poor last season would be an understatement. Having started the season with Andre Villas Boas in charge, Chelsea began the season incredibly poorly. A major reason for this was AVB's desire to rid of leaders like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. Upon the departure of AVB, Chelsea were in massive trouble in the Champions League as they saw themselves 3-1 down to Napoli (who had already knocked Manchester City out of the Champions League). Villas Boas' replacement, Roberto Di Matteo was put in charge for the rest of the season and when the 2nd leg of this Napoli tie came around, Di Matteo masterminded a 4-1 victory (A.E.T). Chelsea went on to beat Benfica, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in last season's Champions League campaign and were the eventual winners of the competition. Di Matteo also led Chelsea to glory in the FA Cup, beating off strong opposition like Tottenham and Liverpool on the way to doing so. Chelsea qualified for this season's Champions League by winning it, despite not finishing in the top 4, much to the surprise of the general public who could not have seen this happening when Villas Boas was in charge.

Chelsea: One Manager Too Many?

Since Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea in June 2003 Chelsea have had many well known names managing their football club. When Abramovich took over the club current Inter Milan boss Claudio Ranieri was in charge. On the first year after the takeover Ranieri lead Chelsea to 2nd place in the Premier League and also reached the Semi-Final of the Champions League. Ranieri was dismissed and replaced by current Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. Mourinho had won the last season's Champions League with F.C Porto. In Mourinho's first season he led them to a Premier League. Mourinho won a second league the next season and left through mutual consent soon after also. After Mourinho's departure, Avram 'Can't' took charge  His points per game were quite high. He lead Chelsea to second in the league, losing out to United on the final day. He also lost the Champions League final to United after John Terry missed a penalty which could seal the cup for them and Anelka missed a crucial penalty in Sudden Death. Avram Grant was sacked and replaced by Scolari, who did quite a poor job in charge of the club and was sacked in February of his first season. They had Guus Hiddink for a short period of time. Hiddink did well bringing a Cup and having an average of 2.43 points per game. Hiddink's reign as Caretaker manager ended and he was replaced by current PSG manager and former AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti. In his first season he won the league and the FA Cup. In his second season he purchased Liverpool forward, Fernando Torres for a British Record transfer fee of £50 million, in the January transfer window. Chelsea still struggled to win games and Ancelotti was dismissed after that season.