As Bad as Things Got; Chelsea, 23rd April 1983
Things can always get worse, and they can certainly get worse than mid-table in the Premier League, beaten League Cup finalists & FA Cup semi-finalists. Chelsea have seen far worse this season before.
On Saturday 23rd April 1983, Chelsea made the long trip north-west to Lancashire to play Burnley in the Second Division. It had been a dismal season at Stamford Bridge, and they needed a result from this game. They’d won just two of their previous thirteen league matches and sat in the relegation places at the foot of the table.
Chelsea were in a desperate condition both on and off the pitch, and the likelihood of dropping into the Third Division for the first time was very real indeed. The decline of the club, however, didn’t occur in a bubble. Chelsea’s fall from grace over the previous decade had come about as a result of bad luck, bad planning, and a crisis in the English game which spread far beyond Stamford Bridge alone.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Unexpected Delirium to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.