True Blues — Chelsea FC
ΕΛ

Season: 1961–62

Football League First Division

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League

The first season without Jimmy Greaves — and the one that finally broke Chelsea’s long stay in the First Division.

Division
Football League First Division (Tier 1)
Manager
Ted Drake (until 30 September) Tommy Docherty
Top scorer (league)
Bobby Tambling (20)
Top scorer (all comps)
Bobby Tambling (22)
Avg. league attendance
27,013

Cups & Europe

FA Cup
Third round
League Cup
Did not enter
Europe
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Notes

The first season without Jimmy Greaves — and the one that finally broke Chelsea’s long stay in the First Division. Sold to AC Milan for £80,000 on 2 June 1961, Greaves left a hole no one season could fill. Ted Drake’s side finished rock bottom of 22 with 28 points from 9 wins, 10 draws and 23 defeats (63–94), four points adrift of 20th-placed Fulham and going down with Cardiff. Home form was only half the story (7–7–7, 34–29); away they managed just 2–3–16 and shipped 65. Ipswich, in their first top-flight season under Alf Ramsey, took the title on 56 points. Drake did not see it through. After a 1–1 home draw with Blackburn on 23 September the board moved; he was finished as manager on 30 September and Tommy Docherty — still only 33, and still a player in the early autumn — took over on 1 October. Docherty’s first league match in charge was the 3–5 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday a week later. He tore into the squad, blooding Ron Harris (debut 24 February against Sheffield Wednesday) and clearing space for the juniors while Bobby Tambling carried the attack: 20 league goals and 22 in all competitions (two more at Anfield in the FA Cup), with Barry Bridges close behind on 19 in the league, Peter Brabrook 8, Bert Murray 4. In the FA Cup Chelsea went out in the third round at Second Division Liverpool — a 4–3 thriller at Anfield on 6 January, Tambling scoring twice. They did not enter the Football League Cup; like Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United and several other big clubs they stayed out of the competition’s second season. There was no European football. Bright spots were scarce but vivid: 6–1 at home to Sheffield United in September (Tambling hat-trick), 3–0 at Highbury in November, 4–1 West Brom, and a wild 4–3 win at Fulham in January. The heaviest nights included 0–4 at Blackpool on Drake’s last weekend, 0–4 at Everton and West Brom, and a 4–5 home defeat to Wolves in April. Boxing Day brought Jimmy Greaves back to the Bridge in Tottenham colours — he scored in a 0–2 defeat watched by the season’s biggest league crowd, 51,282. Home league gates averaged 27,013 (low 12,404 vs Bolton on 11 November). The crest-era kit of 1960–64 still covered the shirt.

Kits

Under review
Home
Away
Third—

In 1960 a crest appeared on the shirt for the first time; a white change shirt with red bands was tried in 1961 before all-red returned, and yellow-and-blue debuted in 1963-64.

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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