He was 74 and had been suffering from a long illness.

Garland spent four seasons at Stamford Bridge, scoring 31 goals in 114 appearances. He was signed in the wake of our European Cup Winners’ Cup victory in 1971, a £100,000 transfer from his hometown club Bristol City. He was an England Under-23 international.

With Keith Weller having left Chelsea after only one season, Garland was brought in to bolster a striker pool of Peter Osgood, Ian Hutchinson and Tommy Baldwin, with the ultra-brave Hutchinson suffering especially from injury problems.

A penetrating, hard-working and unselfish attacker, powerful in the air, the new arrival made his debut shortly after joining, in a home draw with Coventry in September 1971 and set up a goal for Osgood in the first three minutes. However there was scarce action in the early months of that maiden season as niggling injuries hampered him, as they would throughout, but Garland’s first goal was an important one in a big match – an equaliser with a near-post header in what ended a 3-2 win over Tottenham in the first leg of a League Cup semi-final.

He made it back-to-back home goals that late December by netting in a 2-0 win over Ipswich and then came a major moment. In the League Cup second leg at White Hart Lane with Spurs leading, Garland again struck a leveller to make it 1-1. Drama followed when a last-minute Alan Hudson goal secured a 2-2 draw to send the Blues into a cup final for a third successive season. Garland’s goal, a well-struck left-foot shot from outside the area was one he rated as his best for the Blues.

Garland played that Wembley showpiece but sadly Chelsea were pipped 2-1 by underdogs Stoke City. It could have been different. He almost scored a vital injury-time equaliser after intercepting a wayward back pass from Mike Bernard but legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks made a great save to reduce the player he thwarted to post-match tears.

The Blues striker followed that with a goal flurry in April, scoring three times including a winner against Crystal Palace and a strike in a revenge league win over Stoke as the team finished seventh in the First Division.

Garland more than doubled his goal tally the next season, registering 14 in 36 appearances (he was joint-topscorer in the league with Osgood), with that 1972/73 campaign starting especially well with five goals in four games including an opening-day double against big rivals Leeds at the Bridge.

Again the League Cup was the closest he and the team came to silverware but this time the semi-final and Norwich City proved an insurmountable hurdle.

By now matches were being played against the backdrop of problems caused by the drawn-out reconstruction of the East Stand and player unrest. The team was finishing lower down the league table. In 1973/74 Garland scored three times in 26 league games, often in an attack with other recent signings Steve Kember and Bill Garner after manager Dave Sexton dropped and then sold some of his long-time regulars.

The following season was Garland’s last at Chelsea and after eight goals scored, including a double in a 2-1 win at Highbury, he moved on to Leicester City for a £95,000 fee, thereby remaining in the top flight while Chelsea were relegated.

He later returned to Bristol City. Post retirement, in 1992 he revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few years earlier. Former Chelsea team-mate Osgood was one of the first people he told. 

We send our deepest condolences to Chris’s family and friends.

Chelsea director Lord Daniel Finkelstein said: ‘When we signed Chris Garland it was a big moment for me as a fan. He will always stand for me as a representative of his era. And he didn't disappoint. What a player.’