Season: 2010–11

Notes

The defence of the Double began at full throttle, but Carlo Ancelotti’s second season ended without silverware. Chelsea won their first five league games, opening with consecutive 6–0 victories over West Bromwich Albion and Wigan. By May, the Blues were runners-up with 71 points: 21 wins, eight draws, nine defeats and goals of 69–33. Manchester United finished on 80; Manchester City also had 71, but Chelsea’s superior goal difference secured second place. The home record was 14–3–2 (39–13), the away record 7–5–7 (30–20). The autumn momentum faded into a difficult winter. A six-game winless league run began with the 3–0 home defeat to Sunderland on 14 November; Malouda’s winner against Bolton on 29 December finally ended the drought. January brought Fernando Torres and David Luiz on deadline day, 31 January. Torres’s first Chelsea goal finally arrived in the rain-soaked 3–0 win over West Ham on 23 April, a moment greeted with a roar of relief at the Bridge. David Luiz scored in the spring victories over both Manchester clubs. Chelsea won eight of nine league games from 1 March to 30 April, reviving a title challenge that had seemed lost. But the decisive trip to Old Trafford on 8 May ended 2–1 to United despite Lampard’s reply. Ancelotti was dismissed on 22 May after the final-day 1–0 defeat at Everton, bringing his two-season spell to a close. Florent Malouda led the league scoring with 13 goals and finished with 14 overall. Nicolas Anelka was the all-competitions leader on 16: six in the league, one in the FA Cup, two in the League Cup and seven in the Champions League. Drogba scored 11 league goals and 13 overall; Lampard and Kalou each finished on 10 league goals and 13 in all competitions. The FA Cup defence started with a 7–0 win over Ipswich on 9 January, but ended in the fourth round against Everton. Kalou earned a 1–1 draw at Goodison Park on 29 January. In the replay at the Bridge on 19 February, Lampard scored in extra time before Baines’s late free-kick made it 1–1; Everton then won the shoot-out 4–3. The League Cup lasted one match: a 4–3 home defeat to Newcastle on 22 September, Ameobi scoring the late winner after Anelka’s double had brought Chelsea back from 3–1 down. The Community Shield on 8 August had also gone to Manchester United, 3–1 at Wembley, with Kalou scoring Chelsea’s goal. In Europe, Chelsea topped Champions League Group F with five wins from six, ahead of Marseille, Spartak Moscow and Žilina. Anelka scored both goals in the 2–0 win at Copenhagen on 22 February; a goalless home return on 16 March secured a quarter-final place. Manchester United ended the run: 1–0 at the Bridge on 6 April and 2–1 at Old Trafford on 12 April, 3–1 on aggregate. Drogba’s second-leg equaliser briefly raised hopes, only for Park to answer almost immediately. A season that had promised another procession instead became a story of a lost winter and a spirited, ultimately insufficient recovery. Home league crowds averaged 41,435, with a high of 41,829 against Liverpool and a low of 40,734 against Wigan.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._seasons
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_Chelsea_F.C._season
• https://www.fchd.info/CHELSEA.HTM
• https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/2010.htm
• https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/2010.htm
• https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/thanks-for-the-memories-fernando
• https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/13494528
• https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/eng/aveeng2011.htm