Chelsea FC’s 5 greatest upsets of all time
By George Perry
2. Chelsea FC, First Division champions, 1954/55
Chelsea’s first First Division title in 1955 was nearly as unforeseen and unlikely as Leicester City’s 2015/16 Premier League championship. Chelsea finished 8th in the 1953/54 season. This tied Chelsea’s best First Division finish since 1919/20, when the Blues finished third in the first season of English football after World War I.
Through the interwar years and the first decade post-war, Chelsea spent six years in the Second Division and managed an eighth-place First Division finish in 1935/36.
The only remote bright spots for the club in that era were a couple of semifinal appearances in the FA Cup.
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Chelsea was well out of the title picture early in the 1954/55 campaign. Four consecutive losses in October, including a 6-5 loss to Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, made it look like Chelsea was on course for another bottom-of-the-table season.
Chelsea turned their season around after that slump. The Blues lost only four more First Division games for the remainder of the season, including the season finale against Manchester United (again) after having already sewn up the league.
Chelsea’s title defense in the 1955/56 season will sound frighteningly familiar to modern Blues fans. After winning the Community Shield, Chelsea went back to its old habits and finished 16th.
The club would be relegated before returning to the top half of the table in 1963, and would wait 50 years between first tier championships.
Next: 1. Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich, Champions League final