It's statistical surgery time once more as chelseafc.com hosts a question and answer session with the club's official statistician, Paul Dutton.

With the news full this week of managers leaving their clubs, I'll begin with a query from Adrian Barton who harks back to a period in Chelsea history when the average job lifespan of the man in charge was measured in months rather than years.

Adrian recalls that when Geoff Hurst (pictured above left) was sacked towards the end of the 1980/81 season, the matchday programme announced that Hurst's assistant, Bobby Gould (pictured above right), would take charge. He asks why Gould is therefore never mentioned in lists of past Chelsea managers.

The reason is that it was made clear following Hurst's dismissal on April 30 1981 that Gould was a temporary appointment as first team coach, an appointment which lasted for one game versus Notts County. Typical of the times, the match was lost 2-0. John Neal was the new permanent manager in the summer.

It's the same reason we don't record Graham Rix and Ray Wilkins in the manager list for the couple of matches they took charge, knowing it was on a temporary basis between Luca Vialli going and Claudio Ranieri arriving.

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Continuing the managerial departure theme, Martin O. Oyoo from Kenya has asked if Avram Grant's time in charge was the shortest reign by a Chelsea manager. He also enquires who served the longest and, over the course of our history, what is the average tour of duty.

Avram was Chelsea manager for 54 games of which he won 36, drew 13 and lost 5 which does not make him the shortest-lived.

Excluding caretaker managers, that record goes to David Webb for his 'Red Adair' act between February and May 1993 when he steered a side heading for relegation under Ian Porterfield to safety before Glenn Hoddle came in.

Webb lasted 13 games, of which 5 were won, 4 drawn and 4 lost. Ron Suart and Danny Blanchflower were also in charge for less games than Avram.

Chelsea have had 24 managers in 103 years before Felipe Scolari, which gives an average of just over four years-per-manager, including war time.

The longest-serving was David Calderhead between 1907-1933. In that whole time, his greatest achievements were FA Cup runners-up in 1915 and third in the league in 1920.

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Moving on to a question about a the man who signalled his imminent return to first team action with a game in the reserves on Monday night, Didier Drogba.

Garry Hughes, who is such a fan of the big man that he suggests Drogba is Chelsea's greatest ever forward, emailed in and asks:

'I wonder if you could confirm that for all his alleged 'diving', he has never actually won a penalty?'

Garry remembers one turned down at Villa in 2004 but can't think of another. 'He always seems to be fouled on the half way line...' he adds.

In fact Garry, Didier has had three spot-kicks awarded for fouls against him.

One was against Villa but in a home game in September 2005, when he was brought down by Olof Mellberg, Frank Lampard converting for a winner.

At Anfield the following month, it was Djimi Traore's turn to be clumsy in the tackle (pictured), with the same result, setting the Blues on the way to a memorable 4-1 win, Drogba having a hand in all the goals.

The third was against Werder Bremen at the Bridge in 2006, Clemens Fritz fouling and Michael Ballack slamming the ball into the top corner for the second goal in a 2-0 win.

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It may be a little exaggeration to say the one-off shirt debate is raging but it continues to rumble on. Last month we discussed the 'Inter Milan' blue and black stripes that were worn once against Sheffield Wednesday in an FA Cup semi-final and I appealed for recollections of other rare sightings of kits.

I'm pleased to say there has been a response, which is always gratefully received and Mike Doughty is interested to know if his recollection of the same strip being worn in a similar semi v Liverpool the 1960s is correct.

I can state the kit wasn't worn in any such game and am backed up on that by Alan Doyle who is certain we were the Nerazzurri in the Sheffield Wednesday game only.

Alan also has a theory that Chelsea should avoid blue socks in one-off cup finals, pointing out that all-blue kits were worn against Spurs in the 1967 FA Cup Final and the 2008 Carling Cup Final, plus in Moscow back in May - all defeats, only partially balanced by beating Arsenal in the 2007 Carling Cup in blue socks.

Statistically, he has a good argument.

Back to one-off kits and I have also been sent some impressive digging by Nik Yeomans who has named a selection of special colours, accompanied by photos.

From 1990/91 there is a red shirt, white short, red sock combo worn at Coventry (pictured below), different from the official second strip that season of red and white diamonds.

Believe it or not, we actual wore five different kits that year, others being a white one and a jade one.

Nik has produced evidence of a 1974/75 kit that differs from the 'Hungary kit' discussed previously in that it had a white collar. From 1988/89, there's a white kit worn at Selhurst Park when that season's red and white hoops must have been deemed a clash with Palace.

And then there are the Gay Meadow specials of the early 80s - white kits for when both our home blue and away yellow kits could not be worn against a Shrewsbury team in blue and yellow stripes.

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More feedback has come in with two people emailing to point out I was mistaken last time in marking down Tevez's goal against Chelsea at Old Trafford last season as having originated from a corner.

The grey area here is when a set-play is considered to have ended as Giggs's ball in for the goal was from a corner-kick clearance. I accept there is a degree of subjectivity in this case.

And I am also going to feedback to myself as since publishing a list of Brazilian teams Chelsea have played against down the years, I have discovered another.

We flew to Luxembourg on May 1 1954 (pictured below) to play a side called Olaria. The game was a 1-1 draw with Les Stubbs our scorer. So update your records!

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Attendance-related questions have been a perennial favourite here and Tony Williams asks where, in comparison to Chelsea, would the all-time highest attendance of major clubs come.

To answer that, I have produced a league table in which were are in second position.

1 Man City 85,569 - v Stoke in FA Cup quarter-final (1934)
2 Chelsea 82,905 - v Arsenal in Div 1 (1935)
3 Everton 78,299 - v Liverpool in Div 1 (1948)
4 Aston Villa 76, 588 v Derby in FA Cup q-f (1946)
5 Man United 76,098 v Blackburn in Premier League (2007)
6 Spurs 75,038 v Sunderland in FA Cup q-f (1938)
7 Arsenal 73,295 v Sunderland in Div 1 (1935)
8 Newcastle 76,386 v Chelsea in Div 1 (1930) - Hughie Gallacher's return to Tyneside.
9 Blackburn 62,522 v Bolton in FA Cup q-f (1929)
10 Liverpool 61,905 v Wolves in FA Cup 4th round (1952)

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A few quickies now:

Bob Smith asks for details of relegation from any division since 1970. There have been three occasions we've gone down, all to Division Two. They came at the end of the seasons:

1974-75
1978-79
1987-88

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W. Stafford asks for a list of the 1952 Chelsea captains. There were three whose league games as skipper that year were Bobby Campbell with 29 games, Roy Bentley 10, John Harris 3.

Bobby Campbell the player is different from Bobby Campbell, our manager in the late 80s and early 90s.

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There can be few things more frustrating for a fan than turning up at a game, only for it to be called off shortly before kick-off. Thankfully modern facilities make that rare these days but Damian Bush has asked for a memory-jogger on a midweek cup game he recalls in the late 1980s that was postponed after he arrived due to high winds.

I reckon the match Damian is remembering was one against Crystal Palace in February 1990 in our favourite competition at the time, the match being a ZDS southern final second leg.

When eventually played we won 2-0 (4-0 on aggregate) and went on to beat Middlesbrough in the Final.

There was another case when high winds put paid to a Premier League game shortly before kick-off - in December 1993 at the Bridge against Wimbledon.

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Danny is my final correspondent this time with a request for the occasion when, prior to last season's FA Cup match at home to Spurs (a match thankfully salvaged), Chelsea last conceded three goals before half-time.

For that it is necessary to go back over 10 years to the visit of Man United on January 4 1998 in the FA Cup third round when we were the holders.

On that day the score was 3-0 against Chelsea at half-time, which got worse before it got better in second half to end 5-3.David Beckham and Andy Cole scored twice, Teddy Sheringham once with Graeme Le Saux and Luca Vialli with a brace responding.

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To end this month, I am going to send out a Statman question to everyone, with the hope that someone might be able to supply at least some of the information. It originally comes from Derek Webster, a Chelsea statistics enthusiast I have long had correspondence with.

He is after details of a reserve team match in the old Football Combination back on April 24 1976, the last match of the season for that team which on the day contained some famous Chelsea names - John Dempsey, Marvin Hinton and Tommy Baldwin. For the last two it was their final competitive game.

Derek is wanting to discover the other names in the team that day - with some possibles being Clive Walker, Tommy Langley and youth team keeper Kenneth Dodds.

If anyone can help, please email the usual statman@chelseafc.com address - and it's the same address for any new questions or follow-ups to what's above. Thanks for all who have contributed and if you have mailed in and are awaiting answers, there are plenty still to come. I'll be back soon.