Throwback Thursday: 23 years ago on this day, Chelsea played a PL game... in Coventry City shirts

How the heck did that happen?

On April 9, 1997, the team, who were managed at the time by legendary Ruud Gullit, travelled to Coventry for a Premier League clash.

The home team are known as The Sky Blues, and their home kits, naturally, had the same colour.

Dermot Gallagher, that game's referee, ruled that Chelsea could not play in their blue shirts, as it would cause a clash of kits.

The problem was that Chelsea had bizarrely forgotten to take their away kit to Highfield Road! The only shirts they had were the blue ones which even caused a 15-minute delay before the kick-off.

The only way out was what you see in the picture: Chelsea had to don Coventry's away balck-and-red checkered shirts. They did, however, kept the rest of their kits.

That was not a lucky change for the West London team: they lost 3-1 despite Mark Hughes' opener at the end of the first half.