50 Years of Chelsea: 1997-98 Pt.2

<p>The Chelsea FanCast looks back, season by season, to 50 Years of Chelsea history from 1970 to the present day.</p><br><p>Stamford Chidge is joined by Jonathan Kydd, Mark Meehan and Dayne Whittle to look back at the 1997-98 season.</p><br><p>The 1997-98 season was described by Chelsea Historian Rick Glanvill as “turbulently successful” and it is hard to disagree and in Part Two we review from January to the end of the season.</p><p>In January 1998, Chelsea were 3rd in the league having at one stage reached 2nd and still in the Coca-Cola Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup with everything very much still to play for in the second half of the season.</p><br><p>Tradition dictates that the first match in the New Year was the FA Cup 3rd round and Chelsea, the FA Cup holders were pitted against Manchester United, our recent Cup nemesis. None of us, however, could have predicted the insanity that ensued that day. 0:3 down at half time; 0:5 on 74 minutes and then a Graeme Le Saux worldy and two goals by Vialli made it 3:5 with only a few minutes to go and gave us hope. Well actually they didn’t really!</p><br><p>In the next match Chelsea made amends by knocking out Ipswich in the Coca-Cola cup, again after extra time and penalties, resulting in a semi-final tie against Arsenal. Due to the peculiarity of the fixture list this meant Chelsea would play Arsenal at Highbury in the Coca-Cola Cup, followed by another visit to Highbury in the league and then the return Coca-Cola Cup at the Bridge.</p><br><p>Chelsea’s record against Arsenal at the time was very poor, so many supporters were hoping for the best but expecting the worst. A 2-1 defeat in the 1st leg thanks to a Mark Hughes goal kept us in the tie. But no one expected what would happen after the 2:0 league defeat. Ruud Gullit was sacked after failing to agree a new contract and Gianluca Vialli was announced as his replacement; his first match in charge being the Coca-Cola Cup semi-final at home to Arsenal.</p><br><p>Having toasted his appointment with his teammates wi