Chelsea FC: Rating the New Home Shirt for 2012-2013 Season

Adidas have unveiled the new Chelsea home strip to be worn for the 2012-2013 season. I'm sure many of you have already seen it and have your own views on how it stacks up against kits from previous seasons.

With Liverpool making the switch from adidas to Warrior sports, Chelsea will be the only "big" Premier League club to be representing the three stripes.

Last year's strip wasn't my favourite, from the pointless horizontal stripes and out-of-place white patches around the stripes on the sleeves, it looked clumsy. And not really the shade of blue I would usually associate with Chelsea.

This year's strip has gone with a slightly deeper blue, with thin, dark blue stripes across it that are presented in a much more subtle way that last year's kit.

The feature that sets it apart from any previous years' kits is the use of gold.

The Chelsea badge, the Samsung logo, the adidas logo and the famous three stripes are all in a dark gold (the shorts and socks follow a similar pattern).

Adidas announced that the use of gold was to celebrate the 2012 Olympics—taking place in London—which is an event that adidas have been heavily involved in.

All in all, I would say this is probably my favourite of the home shirts that Chelsea have decided on in the adidas era, and from what I have seen I would rate it an 8/10. It is a simple but striking design and the gold works well.

It's just a shame Chelsea couldn't get those gold Premier League Winners' badges to go on the sleeves, but there's always next year.

You can pre-order the new shirt here