Season: 2017–18

Notes

The title defence faltered, but Chelsea still found a way to finish with a trophy. Antonio Conte remained in charge throughout 2017–18, his second season bringing fifth place in the Premier League and the club’s eighth FA Cup. Morata, Rüdiger and Bakayoko were among the new arrivals, while Giroud joined in January and soon gave the attack a different focal point. The fluency and certainty of the championship year proved difficult to sustain. Yet at Wembley, with Hazard carrying the threat and the defence refusing to yield, the season found a winning final note. Chelsea finished fifth with 70 points: 21 wins, seven draws and ten defeats, goals 62–38 and a +24 difference. The home record was 11–4–4, goals 30–16; away it was 10–3–6, goals 32–22. Hazard led the scoring with 12 league goals and 17 overall (12 league, one FA Cup, one League Cup and three Champions League). Morata scored 15 overall, Willian 13 and Batshuayi ten before his January loan departure. Home league crowds averaged 41,282, peaking at 41,616 against Burnley and falling to 38,910 against Huddersfield. Fifth place meant a return to the Europa League rather than the Champions League. The opening home defeat by Burnley, 3–2 on 12 August, set an uneasy tone. There were strong answers: Alonso scored twice in a 2–1 win over Tottenham at Wembley, Morata hit a hat-trick in the 4–0 win at Stoke and later headed the winner against Manchester United at the Bridge. But the winter brought damaging setbacks, including Bournemouth 3–0 at home and Watford 4–1 away. Tottenham’s 3–1 win at the Bridge on 1 April hurt the chase for the top four. Giroud then helped turn a 2–0 deficit into a 3–2 win at Southampton, scoring twice around Hazard’s equaliser. A late sequence of wins kept hope alive, including Giroud’s header in the 1–0 home win over Liverpool, but the 1–1 draw with Huddersfield and a final-day 3–0 defeat at Newcastle ended the league campaign in disappointment. The FA Cup required patience from the start. Norwich held Chelsea 0–0 on 6 January, then forced extra time in the replay on 17 January with a late equaliser after Batshuayi’s opener. Pedro and Morata were sent off, but Caballero saved from Nélson Oliveira in the shoot-out and Chelsea converted all five kicks to win 5–3 after a 1–1 draw. Newcastle were beaten 3–0, with Batshuayi scoring twice, and Hull 4–0, Giroud scoring his first Chelsea goal. Leicester were overcome 2–1 after extra time on 18 March, Morata opening the scoring and Pedro heading the winner. At Wembley on 22 April, Giroud’s clever close-range finish and Morata’s header secured a 2–0 semi-final win over Southampton. Manchester United and José Mourinho awaited in the final on 19 May. Fàbregas released Hazard, who raced beyond Jones and was brought down in the penalty area. In the 22nd minute he sent De Gea the wrong way: 1–0. United pushed Chelsea back for much of the game, but Azpilicueta, Cahill and man-of-the-match Rüdiger held firm in front of Courtois. There was no second goal and no surrender of the lead. A year after losing the final, Chelsea lifted the FA Cup again, the eighth in the club’s history. It was not the season supporters had imagined in August, but the last whistle at Wembley still belonged to the Blues. The Champions League return brought one glorious away night. Batshuayi’s last-gasp winner completed a 2–1 comeback at Atlético Madrid on 27 September after Morata had cancelled out Griezmann’s penalty. Chelsea finished second in Group C with 11 points, behind Roma on the head-to-head record; Qarabağ were beaten 6–0 at home and 4–0 away, while Roma took a 3–3 draw at the Bridge and won 3–0 in Italy. Barcelona followed in the last 16. Willian hit both posts before scoring in the 1–1 home draw on 20 February, Messi equalising. On 14 March at the Camp Nou, two Messi goals and one from Dembélé made it 3–0 and 4–1 on aggregate. Europe was over. The League Cup ended in the semi-finals against Arsenal: 0–0 at home on 10 January and a 2–1 defeat away on 24 January despite Hazard’s early opener. The route there had included Nottingham Forest 5–1, with a Batshuayi hat-trick, Everton 2–1 and Bournemouth 2–1, Morata responding immediately after a late equaliser. Arsenal had also won the Community Shield on 6 August. Moses put Chelsea ahead, Pedro was sent off and Kolašinac equalised; the 1–1 draw went straight to an ABBA-format shoot-out, lost 4–1 after Courtois and Morata missed. Those Wembley disappointments made the final act all the sweeter: not a title retained, but a cup earned through Hazard’s brilliance and the team’s resolve.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._seasons
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Chelsea_F.C._season
• https://www.fchd.info/CHELSEA.HTM
• https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/2017.htm
• https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/2017.htm
• https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/eng/aveeng2018.htm
• https://www.thefa.com/news/2018/may/19/fa-cup-final-chelsea-manchester-united-190518
• https://www.thefa.com/news/2017/aug/04/fa-community-shield-arsenal-chelsea-report-060817
• https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/every-penalty-shoot-out-involving-chelsea
• https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41379696
• https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0242-0e98686a64bb-5595f60f9e4d-1000--messi-ends-hoodoo-to-grab-barcelona-draw-at-chelsea/