The celebrations were momentous, with thousands of fans collecting outside the Britannia gate for collective singing, dancing, and scaling of scaffolding and lampposts. Beer was drunk and thrown in equal measure, and anyone looking to avoid being carried by the crowd’s euphoria was having a hard time of it. On the face of it, the celebrations – which will continue on Sunday with a victory parade on Sunday - rivalled those of 2005.
Back then of course, having watched a team with a seemingly impenetrable defence record the highest points total in history and win the league for the first time in half a century, the fans’ elation was sky high. Abramovich and Mourinho had together made us feel invincible. Chelsea would surely dominate English football for years.
As it was, it would just be one more year. After another comfortable title win, the 06/07 Championship challenge was seriously undermined by a series of terrible injuries, not least Petr Cech’s fractured skull, and Man Utd narrowly regained the crown of best team in England. Domestic cups continued to flow, but Chelsea would not have a legitimate claim to being the best team in the country again until Sunday 9 May 2010. That four-year wait (hardly a long wait in the scheme of things, imagine how Liverpool fans feel) probably explains the unbridled celebrations of the weekend. Being Chelsea fans, the temptation to be pessimistic, to believe that the best days were probably over and to expect the worst, was probably still the default position. Injuries and injustices only perpetuated the anxiety.
The more time passed since 2006, the greater the pessimism became. The draw at Blackburn this season was a low point: I, like many other Chelsea fans, was convinced the title chase was over. Thankfully, this time pessimism was misplaced.
The winning margin in this year’s title challenge was narrow, and six uncharacteristic slip-ups since September have lead to much newspaper and online forum suggestion that this is no vintage Chelsea side.
That suggestion is probably fair. But it’s been a strange season almost throughout and, at a time when all the top teams have struggled for consistency, Chelsea huffed, puffed and scored their way to superiority. But regardless of any debate on the ‘greatness’ of the side – and there are arguments for this team being special - their status as Champions is as merited as any other in recent history.
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