Chelsea’s standout stats and records from 2024
From the official Chelsea FC website:
It has been another big year in the history of Chelsea Football Club and club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton have looked back at some of the standout stats and records for our men’s team from the last 12 months.
2024 round-up
Chelsea’s record in the last six calendar years (all competitions)
| P | W | D | L | F | A | CS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 56 | 33 | 11 | 12 | 135 | 73 | 14 |
| 2023 | 52 | 16 | 13 | 23 | 61 | 72 | 12 |
| 2022 | 54 | 31 | 11 | 12 | 88 | 53 | 21 |
| 2021 | 65 | 39 | 16 | 10 | 108 | 43 | 35 |
| 2020 | 50 | 26 | 12 | 12 | 98 | 58 | 19 |
| 2019 | 62 | 33 | 13 | 16 | 112 | 76 | 19 |
Most games played: Moises Caicedo 48, Cole Palmer 47, Noni Madueke 44, Enzo Fernandez 42, Nicolas Jackson 40
Most goals scored: Cole Palmer 29, Nicolas Jackson 18, Christopher Nkunku 14, Noni Madueke 11, Enzo Fernandez 7, Conor Gallagher 7
Most assists: Cole Palmer 15, Enzo Fernandez 11, Malo Gusto 8, Nicolas Jackson 7, Noni Madueke 7
Clean sheets: Djordje Petrovic 6 (25 games), Filip Jorgensen 4 (12 games), Robert Sanchez 4 (19 games)
We scored the second highest number of goals in our history in 2024, two behind our club record in a calendar year set in 2012 when we played nine games more. However, 2024 is our best average in terms of goals-per-game in a calendar year across all competitions.
Key facts and highlights
Thiago Silva ended his Chelsea career against Bournemouth on 18 May 2024 as our oldest ever outfield player, aged 39 years and 240 days. Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer at 41 years, 218 days is our overall all-time oldest player.
Thiago Silva became our oldest scorer against Sheffield United away on 7 April 2024, aged 39 years and 198 days. Our previous oldest was Dickie Spence 38y 282d v Wolves (a) 26 Apr 1947. Our previous oldest in the Premier League was Didier Drogba, who scored against Leicester City aged 37 years and 49 days in April 2015.
We maintained our remarkable record in March. Our last defeat in the third month of the year, in any competition, was in 2019 when we lost to Everton at Goodison Park. Since then we have won 18 and drawn four. We’ve also not lost a home Premier League game in March since 2001, when Sunderland won 4-2 at the Bridge, 40 games ago, with 32 wins and seven draws since then.
In our FA Cup game against Leeds United on 28 February, Nicolas Jackson scored Chelsea’s 5,000th goal in all competitions at Stamford Bridge in our 2,640th match at our ground. Cole Palmer’s goal against Newcastle on 11 March was our 4,000th in the league at Stamford Bridge.
Eleven academy graduates made their first team debut in 2024: Michael Golding, Leo Castledine, Cesare Casadei, Jimi Tauriainen, Josh Acheampong, Tyrique George, Sam Rak-Sakyi, Ato Ampah, Shumaira Mheuka, Kiano Dyer and Harrison Murray-Campbell.
Our 5-0 win over West Ham at the start of May was our biggest-ever victory against the Hammers. It was our third ‘record’ scoreline in just over a month, as we recorded our biggest win over Everton (6-0) and heaviest defeat against Arsenal (0-5).
Moises Caicedo’s 50.5-yard goal on the last day of the season against Bournemouth was the longest in the Premier League since Wayne Rooney against West Ham in 2017 (57.7 yards).
Cesare Casadei became the 800th player to represent Chelsea’s first team when he came on for his debut at Anfield against Liverpool in January.
Chelsea named our second youngest starting XI in a Premier League match against Newcastle at home in October, with an average age of 23 years, 89 days. Our only younger XI was fielded in December 2023 against Crystal Palace (23y 21d).
Christopher Nkunku scored in six consecutive European matches between August and November. He is the only Chelsea player to have achieved this feat.
The Blues secured eight consecutive wins across all competitions for the first time since our club record run of 10 between October and December 2016.
Chelsea kicked off a European campaign proper with six consecutive group or league phase victories for the first time in our history.
Shamrock Rovers was our 100th different opponent in European competition.
Chelsea scored six hat-tricks in 2024, more than we’ve scored in any other calendar year in our history.
After his first Blues goal at St Mary’s, Jadon Sancho became the 500th different player in our history to score a goal for Chelsea (excluding own goals).
Against Noah in November, Christopher Nkunku scored our all-time 500th successful penalty on our 665th attempt, a 75 per cent success rate.
The away fixture against Astana in December was the furthest we have travelled for a game in European competition. It is 3,500 miles between London and Almaty, Kazakhstan, which is where the game was played, and we faced an extended flight time of eight hours to take a non-direct route avoiding conflict zones in Ukraine, Russia and Syria. The previous record was 2,500 miles, and a five-and-a-half hour flight to Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2017 to play a Champions League group match against Qarabag, and in 2019 to face Arsenal in the Europa League final.
Josh Acheampong, Sam Rak-Sakyi, Tyrique George and Marc Guiu were all named in the line-up for our win over Astana, which meant we started four teenagers in a competitive European fixture for the first time.
Against Shamrock Rovers, Marc Guiu (aged 18 years, 350 days) became the second youngest player to score a hat-trick for Chelsea behind Jimmy Greaves who scored his first treble on Christmas Day 1957 against Portsmouth (17y 308d).
A special year for Cole Palmer
Cole Palmer has been directly involved in 39 goals in the Premier League in 2024 (26 goals, 13 assists) which is the most by a Chelsea player in a single calendar year in the competition. He’s also the fastest Chelsea player to reach 50 Premier League goal involvements (33 goals, 17 assists in 48 games).
Most Premier League goals and assists in a calendar year for Chelsea
39 Cole Palmer (2024)
36 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (2001)
35 Didier Drogba (2010)
33 Frank Lampard (2005)
31 Diego Costa (2016)
Most Premier League goals in a calendar year for Chelsea
26 Cole Palmer (2024)
25 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (2001)
22 Didier Drogba (2010)
21 Diego Costa (2016)
20 Frank Lampard (2005)
Most goals in their first 50 Premier League appearances for Chelsea
34 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
33 Cole Palmer (50th PL appearance v Everton in Dec)
31 Diego Costa
23 Nicolas Jackson (50th PL appearance v Brentford in Dec)
21 Eidur Gudjohnsen
21 Mark Stein
21 Tammy Abraham
20 Gianluca Vialli
20 Didier Drogba
Palmer is the second quickest player to score 30 Premier League goals for Chelsea. They came in 46 matches, five behind Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink with 41.
Against Everton in April, Cole Palmer became the first Chelsea player to score a first half hat-trick in the Premier League and the second player to score a hat-trick in back-to-back home Premier League appearances for the club after Didier Drogba in May/August 2010.
In the same match, Palmer (21y 345d) became the fifth youngest player to score four-plus goals in a single Premier League game and the first Chelsea player to net four-plus times in a single league match since Frank Lampard against Aston Villa in March 2010.
His ‘perfect hat-trick’ against the Toffees was the earliest ever in a Premier League match (29 mins) beating the previous record set in 1995 by Aston Villa’s Tommy Johnson (38 mins).
Cole has scored all of the 12 penalties he has taken for the Blues. The most recent against Tottenham in December equalled Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s 100 per cent record for the club.
He also scored our 150th successful penalty in the Premier League against Burnley on 30 March. We have a 87.2 per cent success ratio from the 172 taken.
Against Brighton in September, Cole joined Jimmy Greaves as the only Chelsea players to have scored four goals before half time in the top flight. Jimmy’s was against West Bromwich Albion in December 1960. He went on to score a fifth in the second half. He is the first player in Premier League history to score four goals before half-time in a single match.
It was also our quickest Premier League treble (nine minutes, 48 seconds) beating our previous record 13 minutes, 59 seconds set by Noni Madueke at Wolves in August. Those were all scored in the second half. Palmer scored all four of his goals in 19 minutes, 57 seconds, with only Jermain Defoe scoring four goals faster in the Premier League, for Tottenham against Wigan in 2009.
Remembering our former players who died in 2024
Tommy Baldwin (1945-2024)
Ian ‘Chico’ Hamilton (1950-2024)
Barry Lloyd (1949-2024)
John Dempsey (1946-2024)
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on ‘X’, Facebook and Bluesky
