Chelsea all time best XI

                         Chelsea all-time best XI

For fans of any club, the debate over who is that club’s all-time greatest eleven is an everlasting one. It is a way of comparing generations and really evaluating the quality of the team’s history. So, as a lifelong Chelsea fan here’s my take on the club’s greatest ever team.

GK: Petr Cech

Since joining the blues from French side Rennes back in 2004, Petr Cech has become one of Chelsea’s most reliable performers and also one of the best goalkeepers in the world thanks to his incredible reflexes and his magnificent positioning. What makes Petr Cech even more of an outstanding choice for this position is that he has helped Chelsea win three FA cups, three premier leagues and two league cups while with the west London club. Amazing to think that he suffered a terrible head trauma back in late 2006 in a game against Reading, yet he is still one of the game’s most revered goalkeepers.

Honorable mention: Peter Bonetti

RB: Ron Harris

Nicknamed ‘’chopper’’ for his fierce style of tackling, Ron Harris is one of Chelsea’s most passionate captains in the club’s history, as well as a fan favorite to this day. Harris will mostly be remembered for his physical yet solid performance in the 1970 FA Cup final against Leeds United, which Chelsea managed to win. One of the hardest players to ever play the game, Ron Harris may have struggled in the modern game with its harsher discipline rules but he’s a Chelsea legend all the same.

CB: Marcel Desailly

The French-Ghanaian defender was somewhat of a surprise signing for pre-Abramovich Chelsea back in 1998, as he had just won the world cup with France at the time. However, Desailly’s passionate performances for the club showed that he was desperate to gain yet more success while at Chelsea while also endearing him to the Chelsea faithful. Desailly’s greatest day in a blue shirt occurred in 2000 where his solid performance helped Chelsea win the 1999/2000 FA Cup. Desailly’s experience also helped with the development of fellow centre back and current Chelsea captain John Terry.

Honorable mentions: David Webb, Frank Leboeuf

CB: John Terry

Arguably Chelsea’s greatest ever youth team product, John Terry wears his heart on his sleeve almost every time he appears for the blues. In many ways, he is the ideal centre back with fantastic heading ability, a tremendous deal of determination when it comes to protecting the Chelsea goal, and his organizational skills are obvious whenever he’s playing. It’s possible that if it wasn’t for the uniting force John Terry brings to the Chelsea dressing room, he wouldn’t have lifted as many trophies as he has since being made captain in 2004.

LB: Ashley Cole

Widely considered as one of the best, if not the best, left back in the world today, Ashley Cole has proven why Chelsea fans were ecstatic when he signed for the club back in 2006 from London rivals Arsenal. Whoever Ashley Cole comes up against, that player knows they have a tough job on their hands, due to Cole’s excellent positioning and tackling. It is a testament to Chelsea’s colossal improvement as a club since Roman Abramovich took over in 2003 that Chelsea can both attract and keep a player of Cole’s ability

DM: Claude Makelele

One of Roman Abramovich’s very first signings as the owner of Chelsea, Claude Makelele’s importance to Chelsea in his five years at the club is impossible to overstate. His best season at the club was his second season and Jose Mourinho’s first, where Makelele added extra security to Chelsea’s defence while playing just in front of the two centre backs. Such was Makelele’s brilliance in this role, the defensive midfield position is often now referred to as the ‘’Makelele role’’.  A truly great servant of Chelsea football club.

CM: Frank Lampard

When the term ‘’goalscoring midfielder’’ is mentioned the vast majority of people would think of Frank Lampard, and judging by the stats rightfully so. The English midfielder has scored 184 goals in 550 games, a record even most strikers would be proud of. The £11 million Chelsea spent taking him from West ham back in 2001 was a truly fantastic bit of business and Lampard is one of very few players who’d be able to be successful in any footballing era.

CM: Dennis Wise

Just like John Terry and Ron Harris, Dennis Wise is a Chelsea captain whose passion and sheer will to win made him an instant hero amongst the Chelsea fans. His goal at the san siro against AC Milan in the group stages of the UEFA Champions league in the 1999/00 was one of the most memorable moments in Chelsea’s history, and is a moment blues fans cherish and sing about to this day.

Honorable mention: Roberto Di Matteo, Ray Wilkins

ST: Bobby Tambling

Holding the Chelsea goalscoring record of 202 goals, Bobby Tambling is a true Chelsea legend. A player who embodied the typical striker of the 1960’s, Bobby Tambling was very much a poacher who had an innate ability of being in the right place at the right time. Throughout his eleven years at the club, Bobby Tambling was a true Chelsea icon.

Honorable mention: Kerry Dixon

ST: Peter Osgood

One of the most famed moments in the entire history of Chelsea football club was a diving header from the then Chelsea number nine Peter Osgood to put Chelsea in the lead in the FA cup final replay against Leeds United. This wasn’t the only remarkable thing Osgood done in this FA cup campaign, the Chelsea number nine in fact scored in every round of the tournament, one of only nine players in history to do so. Over the years, fans of the blues gave Osgood the moniker ‘’king of Stamford bridge’’.

ST: Gianfranco Zola

As far as accolades go, they don’t come much better than being named the greatest player in your club’s history by the fans of that club, but that’s just what happened in 2003 to Gianfranco Zola. Throughout the Italian’s seven years at Chelsea he dazzled the club’s fans with his flair, energy and when the ball was at his feet, the things he did with it could only be described as magical. Zola’s incredible contribution to Chelsea has been honored in recent years, as no one has taken his old number of 25 since he left in 2003.