We’ve reached Week 37 of the 2013-14 club football season and thanks to a couple of Belgians and an unlikely Mexican, the streak of Chelsea loanees scoring in each and every one of them continues. We start our look back over the last seven days of action with Thorgan Hazard. Headliners With the Belgian title playoffs reaching their zenith, every point matters for the younger Hazard and his Zulte Waregem…
Under-21s: Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea (Chelsea win 5-4 on Penalties)
Chelsea’s Under-21s produced a battling performance full of courage and determination to overcome a very good Manchester City side in the Semi Finals of the Barclays Under-21 Premier League and secure their place in the showpiece occasion as they continue their bid to win a first title at this level since 2011. Islam Feruz opened the scoring early in the first half and despite considerable pressure from the home team…
Under-18s: Chelsea 2-7 Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea pulled the curtain down on another Under-18 league season on Tuesday with a defeat to Tottenham which although unfortunate on the scoreboard more than offered plenty of excitement for seasons to come. A hectic schedule involving the FA Youth Cup and Under-21 league playoffs has meant that the final weeks of the campaign at this level have been turned over to the next generation of youngsters coming through the…
FA Youth Cup Final First Leg: Fulham 3-2 Chelsea
The first ever West London FA Youth Cup Final sits finely poised halfway through the two legs as Fulham drew first blood with a 3-2 victory at Craven Cottage on Monday night. Five goals in a frenetic second half half-hour saw the hosts edge themselves ahead in the tie but on a breathless evening the score could easily have been both higher and in Chelsea’s favour, but things as they…
FA Youth Cup Final 2013-14: Previewing the West London Derby
For a third successive season, Chelsea find themselves in the FA Youth Cup Final; the showpiece occasion in English academy football. It’s a run unprecedented in the modern era with no team having reached three finals on the bounce since Manchester United ran roughshod over all comers in the fledgling days of the competition in the 1950s. Many fine teams have come along and occasionally featured twice but the Blues…
The Loan Report: April 22-27
The finish line is within sight as far as the 2013-14 season goes, but even in this 36th week of the campaign the loanee goal streak continues to stand as Thorgan Hazard struck his fifteenth goal of the season and the 118th overall by a Chelsea player featuring elsewhere. We start with him in Belgium. Headliners The younger Hazard had something of a mid-season slump following a tremendous end to…
Under-18s: Chelsea 0-4 Man City
Chelsea’s Under-18s lost 4-0 at home to Manchester City on Saturday in a fixture which was played out at that level in name only as the Blues fielded a squad of Under-15 and Under-16 players. Due to Monday’s FA Youth Cup appointment away to Fulham, all potential inclusions in Adi Viveash’s squad for that game were rested and so it fell on his assistant Joe Edwards to lead as young…
The Last Leg
We’re now well into the home straight of the 2013/2014 football season. With three Premier League games remaining, at the time of writing we still have a chance of winning the League, and next week we face Athletico Madrid in the Champions League Semi-Final second leg at Stamford Bridge. The season hasn’t all been plain sailing. Refereeing fiascos at Villa Park and at home to Sunderland last week have cost…
Under-21s: Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea will go into the Barclays Under-21 Premier League playoffs as the top seed and finish the regular season at the top of the standings courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening. The Gunners went ahead in the first half as Hector Bellerin edged the hosts into a deserved lead but the Blues responded better as the game went on and goals from…
The Loan Report: April 14-21
An extended Easter weekend edition of the Loan Report hands over the headlines to a trio of Englishmen who have come through the ranks at Chelsea and forged solid professional careers from them. All defensively-minded, two of them found the scoresheet to extend the streak into a 35th week, whilst another secured the first promotion of his fledgling time in the game. Headliners The first contribution went to Sam Hutchinson,…