Manchester United Vs Chelsea

Good Days and Bad Games

Aug 24^th 68: W 0-4...Goalscorers: Baldwin 2, Tambling, Birchenall

Dec 1^st 01: W 0-3...Goalscorers: Melchiot, Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink

May 10^th 05: W 1-3...Goalsorers: Tiago, J Cole, Gudjohnsen

Mar 2^nd 68: W 1-3...Goalscorers: Baldwin, Osgood, Tambling

Nov 25^th 90: W 2-3...Goalscorers: Townsend, Wise, OG

 

Dec 26^th 60: L 6-0

Apr 17^th 48: L 5-0

Sept 24^th 38: L 5-1...Goalscorer: Burgess

Mar 13^th 65: L 4-0

Aug 23^rd 58: L 5-2...Goalscorer: Greaves 2

Manager profile: Leslie Knighton: Took over in May 33, thus becoming our third manager in 28 years. His main objective was to mold some of the games best players into a coherent and winning team. He was in charge for six seasons and in that time there were many problems. Foreign teams were able to offer players better contracts and two internationals left Chelsea to ply their trade abroad. There was also internal discipline that surfaced. But be that as it was Knighton could still not satisfy the directors with any sort of silverware. In fact the best we ever done with Knighton in charge was 8th in the first division and a quarter final appearance in his last season in charge. Leslie Knighton was in charge for 273 games of which we won 93 drew 72 and lost 108, a win rate of 34%.Leslie Knighton in charge from May 33- April 39

On This Day: It’s Sept 28^th  1986,And Designing Women is debuting on TV ,Chelsea having come off a 2-6 home drubbing by Nottm Forest, the week before,  were not looking forward to their trip to Old Trafford. Things didn’t seem to be getting any better when the traveling faithful heard the team news. No Steve Wicks, Gordon Durie or Mickey Hazard .Steve Clarke and Eddie Ned were also out so it was going to be a long 90 minutes. But Chelsea being Chelsea done what Chelsea do best and that’s surprise everyone by taking a 3 minute lead, a super shot by Kerry Dixon just inside the 18 yard box. After that it was wave upon wave of attacks from Man Utd but they could not get past Tony Godden. Then Man Utd got a penalty and everyone was thinking that this is the start of an avalanche. But somehow Godden pulled of a miraculous save .We somehow got to half time with our lead intact. The second half started and once again Man Utd just kept pounding away, attack after attack, and the unthinkable happened, they got another penalty!!! This time it was going to be 1-1, all our hard working in defending a 1-0 lead for so long and we are going to draw 1-1.But Godden had other Ideas and pulled off another save. After this the Man Utd players head’s sunk. We managed to hold out for the final few minutes to pull off a result that we didn’t truly deserve…Yes we did it was against the Mancs.

Unsung Hero: This week’s Unsung played just under 200 games for us and managed to score 55 goals. Kevin Wilson signed for Chelsea in June 87 mainly as cover for Dixon and Durie, but in his first he managed 9 goals in 16 games. An Agile and tireless striker, Wilson had to compete with the double D’s for a place in the starting eleven, but more often than not he found himself a bit of a benchwarmer. But none the less you knew with him on the bench that when he was called upon he would give 100%.He helped Chelsea win the 2^nd Division title in 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems cup a year later. In his time at the Bridge he also picked up 22 caps for Northern Ireland. Wilson played 191 games scoring 55 goals between June 87 and March 92.

Flashback: The season is 1968-69, with flower power in full swing and the Kings Road the place to be seen, Chelsea have a Manager in his first full season in charge. After a decent finish of 6^th the previous season, Chelsea were hoping for a better finish this season. We started the season off with a 1-1 at home to Nottm Forest. We then played five others games in Aug of which we won three lost one and drew one. Tambling scored in every one of our first five games, one of which was in a 4-0 demolition at Man Utd. Osgood then came along and scored in our next four games. In fact from the first game to the twelfth Chelsea only had four goal scorers and we had scored 21 goals. Tambling and Osgood sharing eleven and Baldwin and Birchenall sharing ten. Oct started with someone else breaking into the goal scoring column, when Hollins netted the first in a 3-1 win at home to Ipswich. But it was business as usual as our four main strikers helped themselves to 11 more goals, until Houseman became our sixth player to score in a 1-0 win away at Arsenal. The four Strikers helped themselves to another 8 goals before our game Vs Ipswich away on Dec 26^th, David Webb Created History by becoming the only defender for Chelsea to score a Hat trick. Into the New Year and things were not good. Four straight defeats saw us head south in the league table. So come Feb things had to change, and they did, winning six of seven, our only defeat being at Spurs. With seven games left we still had a chance at The Inter Cities Fairs Cup, later to become the UEFA Cup. Of the last seven games we won four, drew two and lost at home to Burnley. We ended the season in fifth, which was better than the previous season but a disappointment at the end. We finished six points behind fourth placed Arsenal but we did finish above Spurs by five points. David Webb was our only ever present this season, and Bobby Tambling was our top scorer with 17 goals from 36 games. Tommy Baldwin scored 16 in 25 games. Our average Attendance was 37,612 with the largest being Vs Man Utd 60,436. Our WLD’S were 20, 12, 10, GF 73, GA 53 Points 50.

A To Z of Chelsea Fc:

W: Wit of Ken Bates: It wasn’t a football club, it was a social club with a bit of football played on a Saturday, occasionally.

S: Shortest playing career for Chelsea: Joe Sherrin came on for Zola in the last minute Vs Wimbledon. It was the last game before the 97 Cup Final. He never got a touch of the ball before the final whistle went and never appeared for the first team again.

H: Highest average Attendance: Our highest Avg Att for a season was 1954-55 48,302.The year we won our first title.

Games Played This Week in Past Years:

Sept 21^st 68: Vs West Ham Utd (H): D 1-1...Goalscorer: Tambling...Att 58,062

Sept 25^th 76: Vs Blackpool (A):  W 1-0...Goalscorer: Finnieston...Att 19,041

Sept 23^rd 03: Vs Fulham (A) D 0-0...Att 16,503

Who Am I?

I was born in Ghana

I played for the French national team

I was the first player to win the European cup with two different teams

I played in the last FA Cup final at Wembley

I made 212 appearance and scored 7 goals

I was known as “the rock”

Who Am I?

Last weeks answer: Tony Hateley

Next week’s fixture: Fulham (away)

Click on the link below to see the Archived History Lessons.

Archived History Lessons