Chelsea FC Profile

Formed: 1905
Nickname: The Blues

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2008)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1971, 1998
• UEFA Super Cup: 1998

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 4 (2010)
• FA Cup: 6 (2010)
• League Cup: 4 (2007)

History
• Chelsea are the only side in England who were admitted into the Football League without kicking a ball following their creation. Despite that auspicious start it was not until the 1950s, under former Arsenal FC man Ted Drake, that the west London outfit began collecting silverware. Celebrating their golden jubilee, the newly-nicknamed Blues – they have always worn the colour, though sported a lighter shade until 1912 – claimed the 1954/55 league title with one of the lowest points tallies in English football history.

• The club underwent a transformation in the 1960s as London became the music and fashion capital of the world. They became known as the country’s glamour club, while on the pitch Tommy Docherty’s young team claimed the League Cup in 1964/65 and finished runners-up in the FA Cup two years later.

• Docherty’s replacement Dave Sexton masterminded further successes, beating Leeds United AFC in the 1970 FA Cup final and lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup against Real Madrid CF in another replayed showpiece the following season.

• Anticipating glory days, the club invested heavily in upgrading Stamford Bridge, only to be hit by relegation. Staring bankruptcy in the face, the long-standing Mears family famously sold the club – and its huge debts – to Ken Bates for £1 in 1982. The new chairman eventually restored some glamour by appointing the likes of Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli as manager, the latter guiding the team to UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1997/98.

• Financial problems returned, however, and in 2003 Bates sold the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. José Mourinho replaced Claudio Ranieri the following year and the side clinched their first championship in 50 years in the Portuguese manager’s first season.

• They successfully defended the title, and only a slip by John Terry in a penalty shoot-out against Manchester United FC denied Mourinho’s successor, Avram Grant, the UEFA Champions League in 2007/08. Carlo Ancelotti then won a league and FA Cup double in his first campaign in charge in 2009/10, only for Abramovich to replace the Italian with FC Porto’s treble-winning coach André Villas-Boas ahead of the 2011/12 season.

Club records
Most appearances: Ron Harris (795)
Most goals: Bobby Tambling (202)
Record victory: Chelsea 13-0 FC Jeunesse Hautcharage (UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, 29 September 1971)
Record defeat: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC 8-1 Chelsea (First Division, 26 September 1953)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52914/profile/index.html

Manchester City FC Profile

Formed: 1880
Nickname: The Citizens, The Blues, City

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• UEFA European Cup Winners’ Cup: 1970

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 2 (1968)
• FA Cup: 5 (2011)
• League Cup: 2 (1976)

History
• Founded by churchwardens as St Mark’s Church, West Gorton in an attempt to curb gang violence and alcoholism among men in East Manchester, the club were known as Gorton AFC and Ardwick AFC before settling on their current name in 1894 and initially won promotion to England’s top division in 1899.

• City won their first FA Cup in 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers FC 1-0 in the final, and moved from Hyde Road to Maine Road in 1923; a second FA Cup came in 1934 but their maiden league title in 1937 was followed by relegation the following season – the only time this has ever happened in England’s top flight.

• Another perhaps unrepeatable first came in the 1956 FA Cup final where City beat Birmingham City FC 3-1 even though their goalkeeper Bert Trautmann, a former German prisoner of war who settled in England, was forced to play the final minutes of the match with a broken neck.

• There were more heroics in 1967/68 as, under the leadership of Joe Mercer, a City side featuring legends like Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell claimed the league title; next came the 1969 FA Cup and the following season’s UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, City beating Górnik Zabrze 2-1 in Vienna.

• Past glories were to weigh heavy on City in later years as they sank as low as England’s third tier in 1998, but the club were back in the Premier League within two years. Although they lasted only one season, promotion followed again in 2001/02 and the arrival of wealthy investors in summer 2009 has transformed them into a competitive side in the English top flight.

• In 2011, Roberto Mancini led City to FA Cup glory as well as a third-place finish, which secured UEFA Champions League football for the first time in the club’s history.

Club records
Most appearances: Alan Oakes (680)
Most goals: Eric Brook (177)
Record victory: City 12-0 Liverpool Stanley FC (4 October 1890)
Record defeat: four defeats by eight-goal margins, most recently 8-0 v Wolverhampton Wanderers FC (First Division, 23 December 1933)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52919/profile/index.html

Arsenal FC profile

Formed: 1886
Nickname: The Gunners

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2006)
• UEFA Cup: (2000)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1994; (1980), (1995)
• UEFA Super Cup: (1994)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 13 (2004)
• FA Cup: 10 (2005)
• League Cup: 2 (1993)

History
• Arsenal began life as a team of munitions workers from the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich, south-east London – hence their nickname, the Gunners. In 1913 the club’s owner, entrepreneur Henry Norris, took the club across the Thames to Highbury and a wider supporter catchment area. There the team adopted its current name having previously been called Dial Square FC, Royal Arsenal FC and Woolwich Arsenal FC.

• Their pedigree was established in the 1920s under the great moderniser Herbert Chapman, and although he died suddenly in 1934, Arsenal continued to enjoy success. Between 1930 and 1938, the Gunners claimed five league titles and two FA Cups.

• Consistent success deserted them until the late 1960s, when former club physiotherapist Bertie Mee built a team capable of winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and the domestic league and cup double a year later.

• George Graham, a stalwart in that double-winning lineup, returned Arsenal to the forefront of the English game in the late 1980s. His defensively stout team won the league in 1988/89 and 1990/91, before lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993/94.

• Arsenal’s reputation as dour but effective changed radically with the arrival of little-known French manager Arsène Wenger in October 1996. Putting the accent on fluid, attacking football, ‘Le Professeur’ led the Gunners to three Premier League crowns and four FA Cup wins, not least guiding the so-called ‘Invincibles’ through an unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2003/04. Wenger also took the club to their first UEFA Champions League final in 2005/06, and masterminded the move from Highbury to their current stadium.

Club records
Most appearances: David O’Leary (722)
Most goals: Thierry Henry (214)
Record victory: 12-0 on two occasions, most recently at home against Loughborough AFC (Second Division, 12 March 1900)
Record defeat: Loughborough AFC 8-0 Arsenal (Second Division, 12 December 1896)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52280/profile/index.html

Manchester United profile

Formed: 1878
Nickname: The Red Devils

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1968, 1999, 2008, (2009, 2011)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1991
• UEFA Super Cup: 1991, (1999), (2008)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 19 (2011)
• FA Cup: 11 (2004)
• League Cup: 4 (2010)

History
• United were formed in 1878 as Newton Heath L&YR FC, a railway works side which joined the English Football League in 1892. The club claimed a place in the First Division in 1906, and in 1907/08 they brought home their first championship before an inaugural FA Cup win in 1909. The next year United moved to Old Trafford and reclaimed the league trophy in their first season at the ground.

• A period of relative mediocrity followed, but the club were transformed forever by the appointment of Matt Busby as manager in 1945. The Scot developed a team of youngsters who went on to become English champions three times in the 1950s, yet the Busby Babes era ended prematurely with the Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958 which claimed the lives of 21 people, including eight players.

• Busby himself had to recover from serious injuries before rebuilding the squad. The FA Cup was recaptured in 1963 after a 15-year gap, then the league in 1964/65 and 1966/67. Busby’s crowning glory came when a team featuring Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law became the first English side to lift the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, although the injured Law missed the victory against SL Benfica in the 1968 Wembley final.

• Busby finally stood down in 1971 and proved a hard act to follow until the arrival of Alex Ferguson in 1986, the latter’s first trophy arriving with the 1990 FA Cup. United followed up with the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup the next season.

• After bringing in Eric Cantona, Sir Alex’s team ended a 26-year wait by claiming an eighth league title in the inaugural Premier League season of 1992/93. The new competition suited United, who went on to become a hugely dominant force in the domestic game while returning to the European summit in their treble-winning 1998/99 campaign and again in 2007/08. By winning the league for the 19th time in 2010/11, the Red Devils surpassed Liverpool FC as the most successful club in English football.

Club records
Most appearances: Ryan Giggs (876)*
Most goals: Bobby Charlton (249)
Record victory: United 10-0 RSC Anderlecht (European Champion Clubs’ Cup, 26 September 1956)
Record defeat: 7-0 on three occasions, most recently at Wolverhampton Wanderers FC (League, 26 December 1931)

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52682/profile/index.html