Fifty years ago, Chelsea's championship achievement was received with a restraint typical of the times. Manager Ted Drake had to request his captain Roy Bentley to bring his team up from the dressing room to accept the crowd's approval.
Yesterday, here, you couldn't have kept anyone boasting any hint of
Chelsea heritage, young or old, out of the picture as that elusive trophy returned to be held aloft by the club's Player of the Year, John Terry.
Not least Drake's 2005 counterpart, Jose Mourinho.
Yet, he will be aware there is no more apposite recipient of the trophy itself than Terry - the man who should have also secured the football writers' Footballer of the Year ahead of team-mate Frank Lampard.
It is perhaps unfortunate that Lampard , whose goals, industry and sheer midfield verve have contributed so greatly to Chelsea, should have ensured victory here by winning possibly the most ludicrous penalty awarded all year.
Chelsea's season has been punctuated with controversy, both on and off the pitch. Why should this final home game be any different?
Lampard tumbled into the area in the final minute after a "challenge" by the visitors' Jonathan Fortune. Not only was the contact slight, it was clearly outside of the area.
Claude Makelele, a player who had not scored in his 94 Chelsea games, hardly appeared the ideal man to take the kick. Indeed, he was not. Danish goalkeeper Stephan Andersen made a fine save but the ball ran to the midfielder, who followed up and forced the ball home.
It was as well he did. "I wrote on a diagram for my players yesterday 'Penalty: Lampard'," Mourinho said.
"I told them, 'If we have a penalty in the 90th minute, and it is two-zero: Makelele.' What happens? It is zero-zero, and Makelele takes the penalty. [He] took two penalties in training yesterday, and missed both."
The visitors did not appreciate the humour of the moment. At the final whistle, Charlton assistant Mervyn Day strode out and apparently informed referee Mike Riley that he was a "cheat". Manager Alan Curbishley confined himself to a wag of his finger at the official.
There was a suspicion that Riley had been swayed by the occasion, rather like, as Chelsea claimed, the Slovakian assistant had been influenced by the Kop at Anfield on Tuesday night. Surely not?
The result is that, with two games left, the Blues are only a win away from beating Manchester United's Premiership points record of 92. That would be yet further evidence of Chelsea's supremacy this season.
One suspects that it will not be half a century before such scenes are repeated; certainly not if Roman Abramovich continues, as promised, to build "the most successful football club in the world in 10 years".
This was the day when the men of New Chelsea became not merely a significant part of the club's history but rejoiced with their predecessors. It was a somewhat surreal yet emotional spectacle, as eight Chelsea pensioners and 13 surviving members of that 1955 squad, led by captain Roy Bentley, brought the Premiership trophy to the podium for Terry to raise in triumph.
Not to be outdone, the partners of the Chelsea players, together with Jose Mourinho's wife, Tami, joined the festivities. In truth, they did bear rather too much similarity with their fictional TV equivalents on Footballers' Wives. It was difficult to say who won the competition for the most exposed midriff.
This game was always going to be more a Chelsea celebration than an examination of their opponents, and the atmosphere was soporific until that final minute.
At the end, the faithful mocked their Champions' League conquerors. "Are you watching Liverpool?" they sang, but with more than a measure of regret, you suspected. Some suggested to Mourinho that it was a pity for the people of Turkey that they would not be in Istanbul. "A pity for them - and us," he muttered, adding that the city would not see the "best final they could have".
Tuesday night's outcome clearly still rankles. Ultimately, though, he recognises that this feat more than confirms his proud stature in the game.
- INDEPENDENT
Soccer: The goal that never was - revisited
Catwalk: Glamour levels rise as partners of Chelsea players turn out to see them lift the Premiership trophy. Picture / Reuters
Fifty years ago, Chelsea's championship achievement was received with a restraint typical of the times. Manager Ted Drake had to request his captain Roy Bentley to bring his team up from the dressing room to accept the crowd's approval.
Yesterday, here, you couldn't have kept anyone boasting any hint of
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