Here are the best images from one of the most momentous decades in Chelsea's 120-year history, as our half-century-long wait for a first league title came to a glorious end.
For five decades, Chelsea had been pursuing a first major trophy. Despite some close calls, that moment of triumph hadn’t arrived. That all changed in 1955, the month after the club had celebrated the 50th anniversary of our founding.
After such a long wait, it had taken manager Ted Drake – for so long Chelsea’s antagonist as Arsenal’s star striker – just three years to turn the Blues into winners, exactly as he had predicted on his arrival to take charge of a team which had narrowly avoided relegation for two years running in 1952.
Before that, the decade had started with a historic moment as well, as around 100,000 supporters reportedly crammed into Stamford Bridge for a friendly match against Russian side Dynamo Moscow, to celebrate the end of World War Two and the return of professional sport in England.
More significant, though, was Leslie Knighton’s delayed introduction of the first structured youth set-up at Chelsea in 1947, with graduates Bobby Smith and Peter Brabrook among our 1955 title winners.
Here are some of our favourite images from Chelsea's fifth decade...