How does Chelsea's squad compare to the Blues' other title-winning teams?

Chelsea entered the season with no fewer than 11 footballers who had played a significant role in claiming a Premier League title. Ten of them comprised the Blues' squad in 2014-15, when the club last conquered the top flight of English football. The other was N'Golo Kante, the workhorse from Leicester City's fairy tale.

On Friday, four more players - Marcos Alonso, Victor Moses, Pedro, and David Luiz - learned what it feels like to be a main character in a Premier League-winning team, as Chelsea's victory at West Bromwich Albion confirmed the Blues' fifth title since the league's inauguration in 1992, and their sixth first-division crown. In a season when the trophy was supposed to be hoisted in northern England, the Blues, boasting a plethora of talent, delivered it to the capital with relative ease.

But how does Chelsea's squad compare to its other title-winning teams? If the Blues defeat Watford and Sunderland in their final two matches of the Premier League season - both of which are at Stamford Bridge - the club will finish the campaign with 93 points, only two shy of its highest-ever tally, which came in 2004-05.

There's a solid case to be made that Chelsea's squad is among the strongest in the Blues' history and the strongest in over a decade. The club boasts the league's best player in Eden Hazard, a 20-goal forward in Diego Costa, one of the signings of the summer in Alonso, a human who never stops running in Kante, and the campaign's most-improved footballer in Moses.

Chelsea's squad looks like a perfect side, and, when stacked up against the Blues' other title-winning teams, it's hard, but not impossible, to find a stronger unit.

The worst?

Excluding Chelsea's First Division title in 1954-55, it's safe to say the worst of the Blues' title-winning squads is the team from 2014-15. The club spent the campaign dogged by accusations of playing "boring" football, a label embraced by Arsenal supporters and rejected by Jose Mourinho, who replied: "You know, I think 'boring' is 10 years without a title - that's very boring."

It didn't help that Chelsea's drab win versus Crystal Palace sealed the Blues' fourth Premier League title, or that the club marched to the crown without any real challenge from another side.

Of course, even if Chelsea was boring two seasons ago, that doesn't mean the Blues were bad. John Terry and Hazard were the club's outstanding players en route to the title; the former enjoyed one of his finest campaigns and the latter was named PFA Players' Player of the Year. Also excellent were Branislav Ivanovic, Cesc Fabregas, and Nemanja Matic.

But Chelsea's squad possessed none of the flair that today's team features, and, had Manchester City's title defense not been so limp, the season could have ended differently.

The best?

Funded by a billionaire owner in Roman Abramovich, Mourinho fashioned what is unequivocally the greatest of Chelsea's title-winning squads for the 2004-05 season, the Special One's first in the United Kingdom.

So commanding was Chelsea's squad that the Blues flirted with the Invincibles and only lost once all season - away to City. Records were broken everywhere. The club won 29 games - 15 of them in enemy territory - conceded 15 goals, kept 25 clean sheets, and won nine straight fixtures on the road. Most notably, Mourinho's side completed the season with 95 points, a sum that is yet to be surpassed by any club in the Premier League.

Chelsea also came within touching distance of a treble, as the Blues reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and won the League Cup.

The squad was defined by teamwork and tenacity, both of which were on full display when Chelsea defeated Bolton Wanderers 2-0 to secure the club's first league title in 50 years. Frank Lampard and Terry were at their peaks, and Petr Cech was more resilient than Stonehenge. Also employed at Stamford Bridge were Claude Makelele, Ricardo Carvalho, Damien Duff, William Gallas, Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben, Paulo Ferreira, and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

In retrospect, it's hard to see how Chelsea even lost one match all season. The Blues truly possessed a once-in-a-lifetime team.

The verdict?

Chelsea's squad this season ranks somewhere between its team from 2014-15 and its troupe from 2004-05, and it's likely closer to the first one.

Though supporters are witnessing Chelsea's most impressive adventure in more than 10 years, it would be lazy to put this season's squad in the same category as the 2004-05 team. That space is reserved for the Premier League's greatest-ever sides, and, while the Blues are the best club in English football right now, they aren't there yet.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)