Found this interesting, average attendances from late 50's, maybe 1956/7 season, or 1957/8....forgot which it was now. Seems odd to see Liverpool in division 2. Edit. May have been 55/56.
That had crossed my mind, but there may have been only 2 got relegated at the time. See @Best uncapped Keeper's post above, we played Liverpool in second division in 1958. So we possibly stayed up (56/7) and Liverpool promoted. Then both relegated in 57/58.
I was just watching SAFC You Tube "PL Files" content and they had highlights of our 13-14 win at Stamford Bridge in the miracle run in where we ended Mourinho's home record. On the pitch for Chelsea that day was Mo Salah. I'd completely forgotten that he played for them and it reminded me that they also had Kevin De Bruyne on their books - arguably the 2 best PL players of the last decade. They signed KDB from Genk for £7m and sold him for £18m 2 years later after only playing 3 league games for them. 5 days after selling KDB, they brought in Salah from Basel for £11m and sold him to Roma for £15m 2 seasons later after only playing 13 league games for them. Both players had successful loan spells in top European leagues as well which showed they were good players. They did the same with Lukaku, come to think of it. £12m signing from Anderlecht, sold to Everton for £28m a few years later, before they bought him back for £97m once he was a superstar. With 2 League titles, 3 domestic cups and 3 European trophies (including the Champions League) in the last 10 years, it would be hard to argue that Chelsea failed, but I wonder if their pursuit of instant success cost them an era of domination.
They had such an embarrassment of riches but those two defo slipped through the net. That season was the one they beat us at home 4-3 iirc and Hazard was unplayable. I think they will have had Hazard, Willian, Schurrle, Oscar, Mata etc.. Lampard probably still playing regularly too. Maybe they should’ve given KDB his chance when Lampard was kicking on instead of keeping him in there for so long. Similar to what City have done with Palmer I guess
