Chelsea First Division Titles & Finishes By Season

Known as the Championship nowadays, the First Division was the top-flight in England before the creation of the Premier League. The fact that Chelsea Football Club wasn’t founded until 1905 meant that it took a couple of years to gain entry to it, eventually playing in the First Division for the first time in the 1907-1908 campaign. The fact that they were relegated out of it at the end of the 1911-1912 season is something of a reflection of how the London club got on with the First Division during the years before it was replaced as the English top-flight.

The up and down nature of Chelsea’s time in the First Division can be shown in the fact that they won the title at the end of the 1954-1955 campaign but were then relegated out of it within the decade. Indeed, the club didn’t win another top-flight title until the 2004-2005 season, but spent plenty of time bouncing between the First and Second Divisions over the years. There were some periods of consistency when it came to Chelsea’s time in the First Division, enjoying relative success under the management of Dave Sexton during the 1970s, for example.