The 1998–99 season was Chelsea F.C.'s 85th competitive season, seventh consecutive season in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

and 93rd year as a club.

Season summary

After a solid fourth-place finish coupled with European and

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

success the previous season, Chelsea really felt that they could challenge for the title this season. Chelsea made more big name signings, including French

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

winning defender

Marcel Desailly Marcel Desailly (born Odenke Abbey; 7 September 1968) is a French former professional footballer, widely considered to be among the greatest centre-backs and defensive midfielders to ever play football. During a successful career at club level, l ...

from

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

international full-back Albert Ferrer from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and, in a club-record £5.4 million move,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

international striker

Pierluigi Casiraghi Pierluigi Casiraghi (; born 4 March 1969) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who played as a striker. Casiraghi began his playing career in Italy in 1985, with Monza. He later played for Juventus, and Lazio, before endi ...

from

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. Casiraghi's season and career was cut short by a knee injury, but his compatriot

Gianfranco Zola Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He was most recently the assistant manager of Chelsea. He spent the first decade of his playing career playing i ...

had arguably the best season of his career, leading Chelsea to a serious title challenge, scoring 15 goals in all competitions and setting up many other goals for his teammates. Ultimately, the European Super Cup, won by beating Europeans champions Real Madrid, was the only trophy that Chelsea had to show for their excellence. Their defence of the now-defunct

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

ended in the semi-finals, while their title challenge was ended in early May when they just couldn't get the better of Manchester United or Arsenal. Nonetheless, a final third-place finish booked them their first ever

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

campaign and was another triumph for their excellent young manager Gianluca Vialli, who, at 35, announced his retirement as a player to concentrate on his managerial duties.

Final league table

;Results summary ;Results by round

Squad

Left club during season

Reserve squad

Statistics

Statistics taken fro

. Squad details and shirt numbers fro

an

Results

Premier League

Goalscorers

13 *

Gustavo Poyet Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of the Greece national football team. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his caree ...

11 * Tore Andre Flo 10 * Bjarne Goldbaek 5 * Frank Leboeuf 4 * Celestine Babayaro 3 *

Dan Petrescu Daniel Vasile Petrescu (; born 22 December 1967) is a Romanian football manager and former player, who is currently in charge of Liga I club CFR Cluj. As a player, Petrescu was deployed as a full-back or a winger and represented Premier Leag ...

3 *

Roberto Di Matteo Roberto Di Matteo (; born 29 May 1970) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career as a midfielder, he played for Swiss clubs Schaffhausen, Zürich and Aarau before joining Lazio of Italy and Chels ...

2 *

1 * Jody Morris 1 * Mikael Forssell 1 * Gianluca Vialli 1

UEFA Super Cup

Goalscorers

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

Goalscorers

* Tore Andre Flo 2 * Frank Leboeuf 1 *

1 *

Brian Laudrup Brian Laudrup (, born 22 February 1969) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a winger, forward or as a midfielder, and was regarded as one of the most talented players of his generation. He currently works as a football co ...

1 * Celestine Babayaro 1 *

1 *

Dennis Wise Dennis Frank Wise (born 16 December 1966) is an English former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder. He is the president of Serie B side Como 1907. He is best known for having spent the majority of his ca ...

1 * Gianluca Vialli 1 * Bernard Lambourde 1

League Cup

Goalscorers

* Gianluca Vialli 6 *

2 * Tore Andre Flo 1 * Frank Leboeuf 1

FA Cup

Goalscorers

* Gianluca Vialli 2 * Mikael Forssell 2 * Frank Leboeuf 1 *

1 *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1998-99 Chelsea F.C. season Chelsea F.C. seasons

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...