Season: 1978–79
Football League First Division
League
Rock bottom of the First Division: 22nd of 22 with only 20 points — five wins, ten draws and 27 defeats (44–92), two behind Birmingham (22) and five behind QPR (25), who went down with them.
- Division
- Football League First Division (Tier 1)
- Manager
- Ken Shellito (until 13 December) Danny Blanchflower
- Top scorer (league)
- Tommy Langley (15)
- Top scorer (all comps)
- Tommy Langley (16)
- Avg. league attendance
- 23,821
Cups & Europe
- FA Cup
- Third round
- League Cup
- Second round
- Europe
- —
Notes
Rock bottom of the First Division: 22nd of 22 with only 20 points — five wins, ten draws and 27 defeats (44–92), two behind Birmingham (22) and five behind QPR (25), who went down with them. Home form was thin at 3–5–13 (23–42); away 2–5–14 (21–50). Ken Shellito lasted until 13 December; Danny Blanchflower took over the next day and could not stop the slide. The winter change also brought Peter Osgood back from Philadelphia Fury (13 December), while Ken Swain left for Aston Villa and Ray Wilkins stayed through the campaign before joining Manchester United the following August. Tommy Langley carried the scoring with 15 league goals and 16 in all competitions — his League Cup strike at Bolton the only cup goal. Garry Stanley added 5; Duncan McKenzie and Ken Swain 4 apiece in the league; Clive Walker 4; Ray Wilkins 3; Osgood 2; singles for Eamonn Bannon, John Bumstead, Gary Johnson, Steve Wicks and Graham Wilkins, plus two own goals. The League Cup ended at the second round with a 1–2 defeat at Bolton on 29 August (Langley). The FA Cup went no further than the third round: 0–3 at Old Trafford on 15 January. Biggest league win was the 4–3 home thriller against Bolton on 14 October; heaviest reverses were 0–6 at Nottingham Forest on 28 March and 2–7 at Middlesbrough on 16 December, Blanchflower’s first league match. League meetings with Tottenham fell in 1978 — 2–2 at White Hart Lane on 26 August and 1–3 at the Bridge on 18 November before a season-high 41,594. Home league gates averaged 23,821 — low 10,682 against Derby on 4 April. Umbro’s all-blue home kit continued in the site’s existing 1978–1981 row, with the yellow-and-green change look listed by Historical Kits for that span.
Kits
The away kit swapped blue for green, a yellow-and-green look that lasted until 1981.
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea-change-kits.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C.#Kit_manufacturers_and_shirt_sponsors
Illustration from hex colours (not official kit photography).
On this day (related years)
History
Eras, trophies, and great matches in the History section.
Explore history →Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._seasons
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Chelsea_F.C._season
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Football_League
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Football_League_First_Division
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_FA_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Football_League_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Shellito
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Blanchflower
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Langley
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Wilkins
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Osgood
- https://www.fchd.info/CHELSEA.HTM
- https://www.fchd.info/lghist/fl1979.htm
- https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/1978.htm
- https://bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/1978.htm
- https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Managers.htm
- http://free-elements.com/England/Goals/CheL/CheL5.html
- http://free-elements.com/England/Goals/CheL/CheL1978.html
- https://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/stats/Report/gate/a1978-79.html
- https://www.englishfootballleaguetables.co.uk/final/f1978-79.html
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea.htm
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea-change-kits.html
- http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamPlyrsBios/PlayersW/BioWilkinsRC.html