Chelsea 2006

Coach: José Mourinho

José Mourinho's Chelsea won back-to-back Premier League titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06, the club's first top-flight championships in exactly fifty years, built on a defence that conceded remarkably few goals — the 2004-05 side set a Premier League record with only 15 conceded across the whole season — anchored by captain John Terry and goalkeeper Petr Čech. Frank Lampard was the standout attacking midfielder of the era, scoring goals at a rate rarely matched by a player in his position, while Didier Drogba's physical, direct centre-forward play gave Chelsea a focal point that suited Mourinho's counter-attacking, defensively disciplined approach. Backed by Roman Abramovich's ownership since 2003, this Chelsea side represented a new financial power in English football, assembled rapidly through heavy transfer spending that unsettled the established hierarchy of Manchester United and Arsenal. Mourinho's confrontational public persona — dubbing himself 'the Special One' upon arrival — matched the swagger of a team that backed up its manager's bravado with genuine results, and this era is widely credited with resetting competitive standards in the Premier League for the decade that followed.