Chelsea’s Under-21 team went into Monday night’s Barclays Under-21 Premier League schedule with their eyes set firmly on a place in the Elite Group Stage after Christmas. They held up their end of the bargain in beating Middlesbrough 3-2, but events elsewhere conspired against them as Wolves beat Manchester City 2-1 to take second place and leave the Blues hoping for even more help if they are to make it…
The Loan Report: November 26 – December 2
An impressive season of productivity from Chelsea’s loanees continued this week with a sixth goal of the campaign for Romelu Lukaku. There was a double helping of domestic action in England this week and Lukaku began it with a bang, scoring for West Brom in a surprise defeat away to Swansea City. His goal proved to be little more than a consolation, but he took it well enough, reacting quickly…
Journey Into Chaos
On 20th October, in a dramatic lunch-time kick off, Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 at White Hart Lane, having found themselves 2-1 down early in the second half. To come from behind in a derby against bitter rivals gave the Stamford Bridge faithful the belief that, given indifferent early season performances from all the title contenders, what had promised to be a transitional season could yet turn out to contain…
FA Youth Cup: Colchester United 2-3 Chelsea
Chelsea began the defence of their FA Youth Cup crown on Saturday afternoon with an entertaining, if sometimes ragged, win away to Colchester United. Islam Feruz’s early opener was followed by a Lewis Baker double, and that proved enough to secure a 3-2 win. The margin of victory might have been greater if not for some poor finishing, but just as equally, they were made to work very hard for…
Youth Cup Defence Set To Begin
Chelsea’s defence of the FA Youth Cup begins this Saturday lunchtime away to Colchester United, and the Blues enter this year’s competition with perhaps more expectation on them to succeed than ever before. Not only are the Blues the current holders, but they also come into the fixture as the only unbeaten team in Professional Development League Under-18 football, with nine wins and two draws from their eleven fixtures so…
The Loan Report: November 19-25
In a week where four more Chelsea youngsters headed out on loan, it was one of the new faces who impressed most. Patrick Bamford had a helpful debut for Milton Keynes Dons, racking up a couple of assists, whilst fellow left-footed forward Romelu Lukaku also made the headlines in grabbing his fourth goal of the season. Lukaku had an eventful and exciting twenty-minute cameo performance in front of the Sky…
Fear and Loathing in SW6
Already reeling from the departure of Robbie Di Matteo, the suits at Chelsea FC inflicted a further blow on the club’s supporters last night with their appointment of the almost universally-despised former Liverpool boss, Rafael Benitez, until the end of the season. Let’s take a look at some of his pearls of wisdom on CFC whilst he was in charge at Anfield:- “Drogba is a coward, a diver and a…
Quartet of Youngsters Depart on Loan
On the final day of transfer activity for English football league clubs until the new year, three Chelsea youngsters departed on lower league loans, whilst a fourth will spend the rest of his season back at home overseas. Conor Clifford has joined League One outfit Crawley Town, his second spell in the division after a month at Portsmouth earlier this season, whilst Todd Kane and Patrick Bamford join him in…
Roberto Di Matteo – A Hearfelt Appreciation
The news that Roberto di Matteo has been sacked as manager of Chelsea, just five months into a two year contract, has come as a huge and unwelcome shock to most fans. During an early season edition of The Chelsea Fancast, the presenters and benches were of the opinion that if Robbie failed to deliver silverware, he would probably be out of a job at the end of the season….
The Loan Report: November 12-18
It’s been another marquee week on the loan front, with Kevin De Bruyne, Nathaniel Chalobah and Ulises Dávila all finding the back of the net and making a positive impact for their teams. We’ll begin chronologically with Chalobah, who returned to Watford’s starting eleven on Saturday after being rested last weekend, and scored his first ever professional goal in a 2-1 win over Wolves at Vicarage Road. In a performance…