Season: 1998–99
Premier League
- UEFA Super Cup
League
Third in the Premier League — and Chelsea’s first ticket to the Champions League.
- Division
- Premier League (Tier 1)
- Manager
- Gianluca Vialli
- Top scorer (league)
- Gianfranco Zola (13)
- Top scorer (all comps)
- Gianfranco Zola (15)
- Avg. league attendance
- 34,751
Cups & Europe
- FA Cup
- Sixth round
- League Cup
- Fifth round
- Europe
- Cup Winners' Cup: Semi-finals
- Other
- UEFA Super Cup: Winners
Notes
Third in the Premier League — and Chelsea’s first ticket to the Champions League. Under Gianluca Vialli the Blues finished 20–15–3, 57–30, on 75 points (20×3+15), three behind champions Manchester United (79) and one behind Arsenal (78). Home form was 12–6–1 (29–13); away 8–9–2 (28–17). Goal difference +27 left Leeds United fourth on 67. Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic went down. Vialli, still only thirty-four for most of the campaign, managed the side all season after taking over in February 1998, and by May he had retired as a player to concentrate on the dugout. Summer arrivals remade the Bridge again: Marcel Desailly from Milan, Albert Ferrer from Barcelona, and Pierluigi Casiraghi from Lazio — whose season was cut short by a serious knee injury. Gianfranco Zola had a vintage year, topping the league charts with 13 and finishing on 15 across all competitions; Gus Poyet scored 11 in the league (14 all comps) and Tore André Flo 10 (13 all). The silverware of the year came early. On 28 August at the Stade Louis II in Monaco, Chelsea beat Champions League winners Real Madrid 1–0 in the UEFA Super Cup — Poyet’s late strike the only goal. It remains the club’s only Super Cup. The defence of the Cup Winners’ Cup ran deep: Helsingborg and Copenhagen were edged in the early rounds, Vålerenga swept aside 6–2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, then Real Mallorca ended the run in the semi-finals (1–1 at the Bridge, 0–1 in Spain). In the FA Cup Chelsea reached the sixth round before Manchester United won the Stamford Bridge replay 2–0 after a goalless first leg at Old Trafford. The Worthington Cup ended in the fifth round — a 1–2 defeat at Wimbledon after a 5–0 demolition of Arsenal at Highbury in the previous round. Crowds averaged 34,751 for home league games — high 35,016 against Derby County on the last day, low 34,382. Umbro’s royal blue with white socks, the clean all-white away, the yellow third, and Autoglass across the chest framed the first Champions League qualification.
Kits
Clean all-white away with a yellow third.
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea.htm
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea-change-kits.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C.
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/1998%E2%80%9399_Chelsea_F.C._season
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%9399_FA_Premier_League
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%9399_FA_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%9399_Football_League_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%9399_UEFA_Cup_Winners%27_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_UEFA_Super_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianluca_Vialli
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianfranco_Zola
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Poyet
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._managers
- https://www.fchd.info/CHELSEA.HTM
- https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/1998.htm
- https://bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/1998.htm
- https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Managers.htm
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea.htm
- https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Chelsea/Chelsea-change-kits.html