Smertin was used sparingly throughout the season, clocking up most of his appearances early in the campaign. After Christmas, he was predominantly on the subs bench and played in domestic cup games.
Smertin scored his only goal for Chelsea in the Champions League, hence I've used the fonts used in Europe that season on the figure.
The obvious reason for Smertin's lack of game time is the remarkable success of the 2004-05 side. The season had begun promisingly, going unbeaten up to mid-October, but there were questions over the scoring ability of the side. However, the defeat at Manchester City, and the emergence of a previously injured Arjen Robben, sparked the team into life and four goals were put past all of Blackburn, West Brom, Charlton, Fulham, Newcastle and Norwich before Christmas.
This heavy goalscoring period was followed by a record breaking Christmas, where the defence was not breached for ten games (1025 minutes - a Premier League record at the time), lasting up until March. By the end of April the league had been sewn up for the first time in half a century.
What a season! The Chelsea of 2004-05 are statistically, at least, the best ever of the Premier League era. They still hold the following records:
- Highest points tally - 95
- Most wins - 29
- Most away wins - 15
- Fewest goals conceded - 15
- Fewest away goals conceded - 9
- Most clean sheets - 25
Chelsea have done a brilliant feature on the title winning season here.
We only lost one game in the league that season, and finished with five more points than the "invincible" Arsenal team from the previous season.
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