Season: 1987–88
Football League First Division
League
John Hollins’s third season ended in the last relegation Chelsea have suffered from the top flight.
- Division
- Football League First Division (Tier 1)
- Manager
- John Hollins (until 6 March) Bobby Campbell
- Top scorer (league)
- Gordon Durie (12)
- Top scorer (all comps)
- Gordon Durie (20)
- Avg. league attendance
- 20,427
Cups & Europe
- FA Cup
- Fourth round
- League Cup
- Second round
- Europe
- —
- Other
- Full Members' Cup: Third round; Football League play-offs: Final (relegated)
Notes
John Hollins’s third season ended in the last relegation Chelsea have suffered from the top flight. With the First Division cut from 22 to 21 clubs (and headed for 20), they finished 18th of 21 — 9 wins, 15 draws, 16 defeats, 50–68, 42 points (9×3+15). Home form was respectable at 7–11–2 (24–17); away it collapsed to 2–4–14 (26–51). Goal difference −18 left them level on 42 with West Ham and Charlton but in the play-off place. Liverpool were champions with 90; Manchester United 81; Nottingham Forest 73; Everton 70. Portsmouth (35), Watford (32) and Oxford United (31) went down automatically. There was still no European football — English clubs remained banned from UEFA competitions after Heysel. Hollins was dismissed on 6 March with the side 16th; Bobby Campbell took over the same day. A late run of draws kept Chelsea out of the bottom three, but 18th meant a two-legged play-off against Second Division sides for the last First Division place. Gordon Durie finished top scorer with 12 in the league and 20 in all competitions — including four in the Littlewoods Cup against Reading and three in the play-offs. Kerry Dixon managed 11 league goals in a difficult year; Kevin Wilson added 9. Cup football offered little relief. The FA Cup reached the fourth round — Derby County were beaten 3–1 away, then Manchester United won 2–0 at Old Trafford. The Littlewoods Cup ended in the second round: Reading won 3–1 at Elm Park, and although Durie’s hat-trick helped overturn the home leg 3–2, Chelsea went out 4–5 on aggregate. The Simod Cup (Full Members’ Cup) brought a 2–1 of Barnsley and a 2–0 at Maine Road before Swindon Town won 4–0 in the third round. Then came the play-offs. Blackburn Rovers were swept aside 2–0 away and 4–1 at the Bridge (6–1 on aggregate). In the final Middlesbrough won 2–0 at Ayresome Park; Durie’s goal in front of 40,550 at Stamford Bridge made it 1–0 on the night, but Chelsea still went down 1–2 on aggregate — and into the Second Division. Crowds averaged 20,427 for home league games — high 35,625 against Liverpool on 30 April, low 11,240 versus Watford on 29 March. Umbro returned with the diamond-pinstripe home and jade away that framed a season nobody at the Bridge wanted to remember.
Kits
Under reviewUmbro returned with a diamond-pinstripe pattern on home and away.
- 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/1987%E2%80%9388_Chelsea_F.C._season
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_Football_League
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_Football_League_First_Division
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_FA_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_Football_League_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_Full_Members_Cup
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollins
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Campbell_(English_footballer)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Durie
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._managers
- https://www.fchd.info/CHELSEA.HTM
- https://www.fchd.info/lghist/fl1988.htm
- https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/1987.htm
- https://bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/1987.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