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“You ain’t got no history, you ain’t got no history. Go home Chelsea, you ain’t got no history.”
There is a prevailing sentiment among opposition supporters that Chelsea had no history prior to Roman Abramovich’s purchase of the club in 2004. Their subsequent rise to the peak of English and European football in the decade hence has often been deemed as tainted due to the club “buying their trophies”. Also, the absence of any form of heritage compared to other footballing superpowers is often used as an example to showcase their apparent incapacity to be appraised as a true, big club.
This notion, however, is erroneous in the fact that prior to their acquisition by Abramovich in 2004, Chelsea had indeed won trophies – 15 of them in fact. Amongst those successful conquests lies their magical 1954/55 League triumph.
This is the story of that magical and, sadly, largely forgotten campaign that saw the Blues languish in bottom half of the table at one point in the season only to bounce back in true underdog fashion to claim their first piece of silverware since their conception in 1905.
A poor start
Prior to the 1954/55 campaign, Chelsea had been a club that was deemed mediocre at best. In the years following World War II, the Blues had finished in positions ranging from 8th to languishing right at the bottom of the table in 20th on one occasion. While the appointment of manager Ted Drake in 1952 had marked a welcome improvement in Chelsea’s fortunes, they still remained a highly inconsistent side.
Chelsea were not expected to amount to much, let alone become champions of England in 1955 by denying a strong Wolverhampton Wanderers outfit their second First Division title in as many years. Their early performances that season were indicators that the 1954/55 campaign was going to be the long, arduous and ultimately underwhelming campaign that was outlined for them by the bookies.
The Blues had a decent first month where they opened their campaign away from home with a 1-1 draw with Leicester City before trouncing Burnley and Bolton at Stamford Bridge in their next couple of games. But the campaign then took a turn for the worse with the advent of September with the London outfit losing to both Preston North End and Everton. October then brought even more agony for the Blues with them dropping more points and ultimately laying haplessly at 12th on the table at the end of October.
A Christmas miracle
With the advent of Christmas in the imminent future, The Blues miraculously turned their form around mid-December. Chelsea’s captain Roy Bentley and fellow striker John McNichol finally found their scoring boots and the Blues happily found themselves in a goal scoring glut. The Blues managed to score 12 goals in the three games before Christmas which set the stage for their 5-2 drubbing of Bolton on Boxing Day.
Chelsea’s staggering change of fortunes showed no signs of slowing down with consecutive wins against Newcastle, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion catapulting them to the top of the League. All their results finally boiled down to one fiery fixture on 9 April – a game against defending champions and current runners-up Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge. In what was essentially a title decider, the Blues triumphed in a 1-0 win with a Peter Sillet penalty virtually securing the title for the Blues.
The Hero
Every fairy tale needs its own hero and in Roy Bentley, Chelsea had theirs. The club’s captain was signed from Newcastle in 1948 for £12,500 and went on to establish himself as one of Chelsea’s greats. He was one of the world’s first true deep-lying centre forwards who possessed a strong aerial presence and a powerful shot. He was often on the scoresheet for Chelsea throughout his career, none more so than during their 1954/55 title-winning campaign.
Bentley went on to win the Golden Boot with a tally of 21 goals in the 1954/55 season, putting the ball in the back of the net regularly for the Blues. In addition to being their leading striker, Bentley was also Chelsea’s captain and led from the front. He often chipped in during the big games when the Blues needed him most, such as during their 4-2 win over London rivals Tottenham in January that year.
Without Bentley’s goals and his leadership on the pitch, the season would have gone down as another average, mid-table finish for the Blues. Due to his heroics, however, his side went on the write the biggest chapter in Chelsea’s history until a certain Ivorian by the name of Didier Drogba went on to win Chelsea the Champions League more than half a century later.
The Mastermind
Behind every great team lies an even greater manager.
When Ted Drake was appointed manager of Chelsea in 1952, he had his work cut out for him. He inherited a lacklustre, under-performing squad who hadn’t achieved anything prior to his appointment. His objective at that time was merely keeping the club in the First Division – the idea of challenging for the title was unfathomable.
However, Drake didn’t possess such partisan goals. He envisioned a changed Chelsea, a Blues outfit that was capable of taking on the toughest of challenges and in order to fulfil that dream he needed to restructure the entire system present at Chelsea.
Until that point of time, Chelsea were known as The Pensioners with a grand old man present on their club crest. All this changed with Drake’s arrival and he did away with the crest and the nickname and in its place came the beloved Blue Lion present today. This was symbolic of the radical changes that were occurring on the pitch. He undertook monumental changes in the scouting system – emphasizing the importance of scouting reports before games – something that was unheard of at that time in the English game.
He also fundamentally changed the club’s training methods, introducing higher-octane, team-centric training methods that placed great value on ball work. He also did away with the club’s policy of buying costly big-name players that were usually hit-or-miss and instead set about buying young, promising players from the lower leagues such as Frank Blunstone – whose trickery on the wing played a major role in Chelsea winning the First Division title that year.
In this complete reorganization of Chelsea’s system, Drake managed to create a title winning side out a team that was woefully run-of-the-mill; he created something that Chelsea fans all over will never forget. As a result, Drake – a prolific goalscorer for Arsenal in his playing days – probably remains the only person to be loved by both sides of London to this day.
While Jose Mourinho still remains Chelsea’s most iconic and remembered manager for obvious reasons, Drake’s place in Chelsea’s legacy is secure. Much may have changed at Stamford Bridge since that title-winning season, but nobody forgets a class act. And Ted Drake was just that.
