There is a seasonal statistical surgery today from club statistician Paul Dutton as he answers questions from supporters ranging from Blues brothers to long-lost keepers.
I like to start Ask Statman with something a little topical and following on from Sunday's game when there were three Coles on the Stamford Bridge pitch, a question from Marusya from Russia is a good place to start.
She has written about games when Chelsea have had two Coles playing in the same team - Joe and Ashley these days, with Carlton and Joe in the past - and wonders if there have been more cases when players with the same family name were in the team, relatives or not?
In chronological order, here is a list beginning with the very first season.
James and JT Robertson were at Chelsea from the start in 1905. They were not related and JT was the player/manager.
Moving on to the 1920s, George and Stephen Smith played together but they were also no relation - but we do find brothers in 1928 when Chris Ferguson played one game with his older brother Willie.
Three pairs of non-related Blues came along in the 1950s - Brian and Tony Nicholas, James and Robert Smith and Derek and John Saunders.
The last pair were in the same 1953 side and Derek went on to be ever-present in the 1955 Championship-wining team, a side that also contained Peter Sillett (pictured above right) who would soon play together with brother John (above left), those two carrying on into the 1960s.
More famous Chelsea brothers that decade were Ron and Allan Harris and the 1970s were graced by Ray and Graham Wilkins. Non-brothers Keith and Joey Jones and Clive and Kevin Wilson were 1980s Chelsea players.
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Returning to the subject of the team that first won the league title for Chelsea, Bill Torode has mailed in from Columbia with some questions on the 1954/55 season.
Bill writes: 'When Chelsea won the old first division in their 50th anniversary year it was said the goalkeeper was Chick Thompson. Even the photos of the winning side always show Thompson as the keeper. For me Bill Robertson was always the first team goalkeeper. I know he was injured during the season and Thompson took over.'
Bill asks how many games each played during that season and also what number of games had to be played to qualify for a winners' medal.
Indeed Robertson did start off first choice and played the first 26 games. Thompson, after Robertson's injury, played the last 16 which corresponded with the team finding championship-winning form.
The qualification was 10 games for a medal which meant out of the 16 players used that season, only four didn't qualify. Amateurs Jim Lewis and Seamus O'Connell, who Bill suspected might not have received medals did, having played 17 and 10 games respectively.
Just Bobby Smith, Peter Brabrook, Alan Dicks and Bob Edwards missed out.
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The next question brings a welcome thought of sun to midwinter with Mike Capewell wanting details of a joint end-of-season tour of the Caribbean with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1964.
Mike has a list of the islands visited but has asked for more info.
In all, the Chelsea side which at the time was managed by Tommy Docherty, played 11 games in 18 days in May and June, five of those matches against Wolves.
First we played Barbados and Wolves in Bridgetown, Barbados. Then it was on to Trinidad where Wolves and Trinidad were the opposition in Port of Spain.
There were then five games in Jamaica - Wolves twice, a Jamaican X1, and two local sides who were defeated 15-0 and 12-1.
The tour ended up with Chelsea playing two games in Haiti against the Haiti side and, you guessed it, Wolves. The match against Haiti was abandoned due to untimely tropical rain with our side 2-1 down.
Out of the 11 matches, Chelsea won eight and lost three.
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Okay, it's time to return to our ever-increasing list of players who became captains at another club after leaving Chelsea.
The roll call as it stood at the end of the last Ask Statman, was Gérémi, Frank Sinclair, Mario Melchiot, Adrian Mutu and William Gallas.
Both Derahonon Djedje and Phil in Iowa have mailed in to added Claude Makelele , Phil having recently watched him captain Paris St-Germain.
Clayton Freeman, who also lives in the States, in his case Florida, adds Scott Parker (Newcastle United), Neil Clement (West Brom), Gianfranco Zola (Cagliari), Frank Leboeuf (Marseille), John Spencer (Colorado Rapids), Graham Stuart (Charlton Athletic) and Vinnie Jones (Wimbledon).
Clayton also continues his excellent contribution by adding to the list of Chelsea players who have captained their nations, which previously stood at:
John Terry, Michael Ballack, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Ruud Gullit, Ray Wilkins, Alexey Smertin, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Andriy Shevchenko, Dmitri Kharine, Andy Townsend, Adrian Mutu, Vivian Woodward and Tommy Lawton, Petr Cech, Claudio Pizarro, David Hay and Bobby Evans.
Clayton adds some home nation skippers in the shape of Joey Jones, Peter Nicholas and Vinnie Jones (Wales - pictured below) and Mal Donaghy (Northern Ireland).
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I'll run through some short answer queries now.
Tony Williams asks when was the last time we lost a league game by more than a three-goal margin. Tony's memory says Anfield in the late 80s and he is correct about the venue but the season was 1996/97 when we lost 5-1 in a league visit.
A Frank Leboeuf penalty was a late consolation goal, Liverpool having scored through Robbie Fowler, Patrik Berger twice, an Andy Myers own-goal and John Barnes.
And speaking about Chelsea v Liverpool, Ranie Sekhon from India has mailed in with a comparison of the games-per-league-goal ratio achieved by Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard during their careers.
I can bring Ranie's figures up-to-date. Including his time at West Ham, Lampard has scored 100 goals in 407 Premier League matches, a 4.06 games-per-goal ratio. Gerrard is 315 games for 61 goals - 5.16 games-per-goal.
Wesley Allaerts, a regular name in the Statman inbox, asks for a review of the longest unbeaten runs in English top-flight history.
It is:
Arsenal 49 games unbeaten - 2003/04
Nottingham Forest 42 games - 1977/78
Chelsea 40 games - 2004/05
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A second question has come in this time from India. Milton, a Chelsea fan from Jabalpur wants to know how many occasions Chelsea have scored three or more goals and Frank Lampard hasn't been on the score sheet while playing the full 90 minutes.
Milton only remembers one game - the 4-4 draw at White Hart Lane last season.
There have been too many occasions to list each game individually but a season-by-season breakdown is
2001/2 - 11 times,
2002/3 - 9 times
2003/4 - twice
2004/5 - 8 times
2005/6 - 4 times
2006/7 - 3 times
2007/8 - 4 times
So far this campaign we're just looking at the 3-0 away win at West Brom. The pattern is pretty clear, with days when we score freely and Lamps isn't involved far less likely these days than his early seasons.
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I'm going to finish this time by throwing a question I cannot answer open to anyone who can help.
John Keely wants to know the whereabouts these days of Steve Francis, our former goalkeeper from Essex.
Francis came into the Chelsea side as a teenager in 1981 in place of the eccentric and increasingly erratic Petar Borota. He was first choice until the arrival of Eddie Niedzwiecki in 1983. He left Chelsea in 1987.
I have no record of where Francis is these days and asking around has brought no joy so if any fans reading this have any info, please email in.
The address is statman@chelseafc.com which is also the address for new queries or follow-up comments to any of today's subjects.
As ever, I'll endeavour to deal with more of the questions that have been sent in soon.
