Third place meant the 1999/2000 season would bring Champions League football for the first time and it proved to be to Chelsea's taste as we became the first English club to reach the quarter-finals at the first attempt.
A famous Dennis Wise equaliser in Milan's San Siro stadium, Galatasaray's red-hot support silenced by a 5-0 win in Turkey and the giants of Barcelona beaten 3-1 at the Bridge were the highlights of the campaign.
The Spaniards eventually knocked us out in the mighty Camp Nou but there was plenty of consolation as we contested the last ever FA Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium. It was Aston Villa's turn to suffer the Di Matteo Wembley goal habit - 1-0 the final score.
Just 20 years after the club had teetered on the brink of financial collapse, Chelsea equalled the British transfer record by paying £15 million for goalscorer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. His first goal in his first game helped us raise the Charity Shield to make it six trophies in a little over three years.
Lifting the silverware was inspirational west London-born captain Dennis Wise, enjoying his reward for 11 years of outstanding service and his efforts in pulling together a multinational squad.
All was not well below the surface however. Problems were occurring between Vialli and an increasing number of his players and some of his transfer purchases had not worked out. The team was an ageing one and with the need for much rebuilding imminent, the club decided to look elsewhere for someone to oversee it.
Claudio Ranieri takes charge
Claudio Ranieri, an Italian who had built knockout cup-winning sides at Fiorentina in his homeland and Valencia in Spain was selected. His first season ended with Chelsea qualifying for Europe for a fifth season-in-a-row.
Hasselbaink won the Premiership Golden Boot with 23 league goals, earning him the right to be named in the same breath as Hilsdon, Bentley, Greaves, Osgood and Dixon when Chelsea centre-forwards are discussed.
Ranieri began his transfer work, shipping out Wise, Poyet and Leboeuf. He spent £42 million to bring in defender William Gallas, midfielders Frank Lampard, Emmanuel Petit, Slavisa Jokanovic plus wingers Jesper Gronkjaer and Boudewijn Zenden.
The rebuilding of a new compact Stamford Bridge was completed for the start of the 2001/2 season and for an FA Cup quarter-final that same campaign, Chelsea travelled to Tottenham.
This fixture had grown into no ordinary London derby. Over 12 years Chelsea had built an incredible unbeaten run over our local rivals, having not lost a single game to them during that time.
But in January 2002 in a League Cup semi-final, Spurs had recorded a rare and heavy success - beating us 5-1 on their patch. We returned six weeks later in the FA Cup, hungry for revenge and thumped them 4-0. Fulham were then beaten in the semi-final but a third consecutive London derby in the Final at Cardiff was lost to Arsenal 2-0.
Cup finals and top six finishes were becoming commonplace but debts accumulated in rebuilding the team, the stadium plus the construction of an adjoining hotel and leisure complex were causing concern.
There was relief when a win in the final game of the 2002/3 season over Liverpool saw us and not them qualify for the lucrative Champions League.
Roman Abramovich becomes the new owner
Despite qualification for the Champions League the debt burden still made the club ripe for new investment and on July 2nd 2003, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea.
Just 36 years-old, Abramovich was a Russian billionaire almost unknown in England at the time.
News of the sale came out of the blue, and at first the picture was unclear. Would there be money for new players, would there be a change in manager and would Gianfranco Zola remain at the club?
Funds had been unavailable to offer the soon-to-be 37 year-old a suitable new contract. Now everything had changed but Zola had already given his word to a club back home in his native Sardinia. In this most incredible of weeks for Chelsea, possibly the most universally popular player ever to wear our shirt departed.
It soon became clear the direction the club would be taking when Abramovich sanctioned the biggest close-season spending spree world football had ever seen.
Young English talent was bought in the shape of Glen Johnson, Wayne Bridge and Joe Cole. Other Premiership clubs were raided for Gérémi and Juan Sebastián Veròn while Damien Duff was a new club record purchase at £17 million.