Previewing The 2020-21 FA Youth Cup Campaign

November 27, 2020

Saturday (November 28th) sees the return of the FA Youth Cup for Chelsea as they enter the 2020-21 edition at the Third Round stage. Here’s everything you need to know for this season. Chelsea are quite good in the Youth Cup, right? You could say that. Their nine competition wins place them second all-time behind Manchester United and they dominated much of the last decade, reaching nine finals since 2010…

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FA Youth Cup Final: Manchester City 3-2 Chelsea

November 2, 2020

You can’t win them all. Chelsea and Manchester City have dominated the FA Youth Cup scene for the last decade – this was the Blues’ eighth final in the last nine seasons – but while the former have enjoyed six wins in that time, City have suffered defeat four times on the grand stage; three of those against Chelsea. They finally got their measure of revenge on Monday night in…

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Previewing The 2019-20 FA Youth Cup Final

November 1, 2020

The more things change, the more they stay the same. For the fourth time in six seasons, Chelsea and Manchester City will contest the FA Youth Cup Final, and in the two campaigns they didn’t square off in the showpiece occasion in 2018 and 2019, each racked up an additional Final appearance. You have to go back to 2011 to find the last time one of them didn’t reach the…

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FA Youth Cup: Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United

October 30, 2020

In a year where everything we know has been turned upside down and nothing is what it seems any more, football can bring a soothing familiarity to settle you back down. For the eighth time in ten seasons, Chelsea have reached the FA Youth Cup Final, and set up a fourth clash with Manchester City since 2015 after beating their neighbours Manchester United 1-0 at St George’s Park on Friday…

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The Loan Report: October

October 25, 2020

33 players, 33 comments. October’s Loan Report features a bumper crop of Chelsea loanees, driven by a pandemic-influenced transfer market in which any plans for trimming the fat around the edges of this particular arm of development strategy have been put well and truly on hold until calmer waters can be found. With plenty to catch up on, let’s get stuck in. Ethan Ampadu, Sheffield United Had to bide his…

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The Loan Report: September

September 27, 2020

September has seen the 2020-21 season get in to full swing across Europe and with it has come the expansion of the latest Loan Army. Almost three dozen Chelsea players are out on loan now and, with the domestic transfer window in England for Football League clubs still open until mid-October, it’s set to grow further still. Uwakwe finds early success Every player wants to make an instant impression when…

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Development Squad: Oxford United 2-1 Chelsea

September 8, 2020

Six months has rarely felt so long. 190 days after Chelsea beat Everton in PL2 action, competitive academy football returned with the Development Squad’s opening EFL Trophy fixture away to Oxford. Andy Myers’ boys suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat, and will be frustrated with the result on the balance of play, but pleased to be back playing. It was a new-look Development Squad too, with 17 year-olds Levi Colwill, Lewis…

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Previewing the 2020-21 Academy Season

September 6, 2020

The end of the 2019-20 academy season was as abrupt and as unexpected a development as most involved at this level will ever experience. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide left a near six-month hiatus from competitive football, but the coming week sees the return of meaningful action at this level where, once again, Chelsea figure to be keenly involved when it matters most. What a twelve months. Emboldened…

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The Loan Report: August

August 30, 2020

And we’re back. The 2020-21 Loan Army season started five days before the 2019-20 season finished, when Victor Moses and Inter were on the losing side in the Europa League Final against Sevilla, drawing a line under the longest campaign any of us are likely to witness in our lifetimes. Earlier that week, however, Danilo Pantic had made his debut for Serbian Premier League side Čukarički, kicking off another year…

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Bouncing Back in 2020-21: Five Players To Watch

August 3, 2020

Sometimes things just don’t go to plan. Saturday’s FA Cup Final is a case in point; losing to Arsenal wasn’t part of the script as far as Chelsea were concerned, but it happened, and now Frank Lampard and the club have to plot a path forward and continue to make the promising progress they’ve shown throughout much of the extended 2019-20 season. On an individual level, the same thing happens…

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