True Blues — Chelsea FC
ΕΛ

Season: 1919–20

Football League First Division

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  • FA Cup semi-finalists

League

Chelsea’s eleventh competitive season was the first Football League campaign after the wartime suspension.

Division
Football League First Division (Tier 1)
Manager
David Calderhead
Top scorer (league)
Jack Cock (21)
Top scorer (all comps)
Jack Cock (24)
Avg. league attendance
41,852

Cups & Europe

FA Cup
Semi-finals
League Cup
—
Europe
—
Other
London Challenge Cup: Winners (beat Clapton Orient 2–1, 22 Sep 1919; beat Nunhead 6–0, 13 Oct 1919; beat Queens Park Rangers 1–0, 10 Nov 1919; beat Crystal Palace 1–0 in the final, 8 May 1920); London Professional Charity Cup: beat Fulham 3–2 (27 Oct 1919)

Notes

Chelsea’s eleventh competitive season was the first Football League campaign after the wartime suspension. The First Division had been expanded to 22 clubs. Chelsea, who had finished 19th in 1914–15 in a relegation place, returned to the top flight — club history describes the club as re-elected; the List of Chelsea F.C. seasons says it was invited to rejoin — while Tottenham Hotspur, bottom in 1914–15, went into the Second Division and Arsenal were elected from that division. David Calderhead remained secretary-manager throughout. The Pensioners finished 3rd of 22 with 49 points — 22 wins, 5 draws and 15 defeats, 56 goals scored and 51 conceded — two behind runners-up Burnley (51) and eleven behind champions West Bromwich Albion (60). It was then the highest league finish by a London club. The home record was outstanding: 15 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats (33–10). Away from Stamford Bridge it was harder — 7 wins, 2 draws and 12 defeats (23–41) — but still a transformation from the winless away record of 1914–15. Jack Cock, signed from Huddersfield Town on 29 October 1919, led the scoring with 21 league goals in 25 appearances and 3 in the FA Cup — 24 in all competitions. Bob Whittingham had left for Stoke City five days before Cock arrived. Jimmy Croal scored 6 in the league; Harry Wilding 4. Nils Middelboe was still on the books. Crowds returned with peacetime football: Bounder’s home league average was 41,852 (878,902 across 21 games); European Football Statistics has 42,615. The biggest home league gate was 70,000 for Aston Villa on 2 April 1920 (Wikipedia’s infobox misdates that crowd to 7 April); the lowest was 12,000 against Newcastle United on 13 September. The FA Cup run reached the semi-finals. Bolton Wanderers were beaten 1–0 away, Swindon Town 4–0 and Leicester City 3–0 at home, and Bradford Park Avenue 4–1 in the fourth round, before Aston Villa won 3–1 at Bramall Lane on 27 March 1920 (Croal; Walker 2, Edgley; 37,771). Villa went on to lift the Cup. Bounder’s season diary also records a London Challenge Cup triumph — Crystal Palace beaten 1–0 in the final on 8 May 1920 — plus a London Professional Charity Cup win over Fulham; those lines come from that diary only. Third place, a Cup semi-final and the Bridge full again made 1919–20 the strongest peacetime season Chelsea had yet had — and the answer, on the pitch, to four years without a League programme.

Kits

Under review
Home
Away
Third—

Historical Football Kits shows a distinct 1912–1914 home panel at the start of this span and a further 1914–1918 panel covering the wartime seasons: royal blue shirt with white shorts (socks not settled in text). Maroon remained the change colour into 1912–1914 A; HFK’s wartime panel is labelled within the same royal-blue era. Some accounts place the darkening from pale/Eton blue earlier (see the 1906–1912 row); the archive therefore starts the royal-blue row at 1912–13 without claiming an exact switch date or inventing a shade beyond HFK’s royal-blue labelling.

Illustration from hex colours (not official kit photography).

On this day (related years)

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History

Eras, trophies, and great matches in the History section.

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Sources

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