Chelsea’s youngest reserve team of the team, featuring something of a ramshackle defensive unit and three schoolboys in total on the night, went down to a ruthless and impressive Manchester United team in Monday night action. Two first half goals from Joshua King were responded to by a header from Archange Nkumu, but second half tallies from Gabriel Obertan and Bebe put an emphatic seal on affairs. With the entire…
The Loan Report: April 11-17
By scoring his fourth goal in five appearances for Swansea, Fabio Borini once again leads the headlines as we catch up with Chelsea’s young loanees. With Daniel Sturridge cup-tied for Bolton’s Wembley date with Stoke, and with Michael Mancienne (Wolves) and Gael Kakuta (Fulham) enjoying a free weekend due to cup rescheduling, attentions turned to England’s lower leagues. Borini’s latest effort came in the 53rd minute of the Swans’ trip…
Blues To Extend Inter Relationship?
When Chelsea signed goalkeeper Matej Delać from Inter Zaprešić in September 2009, it signalled the start of a healthy working relationship between the two clubs. According to reports in Croatian media this weekend, the two clubs are still in close contact and the Blues have keen interest in two of the club’s key players in their unpredictable rise to third in the league this season. The main interest surrounds teenage…
Everything’s Going To Be Alright
A day which was suppose to define our season, a day on which we were suppose to forget all the shambles of the previous months, a day which in the end turned out to be another ignominious European night as we failed to overcome a one goal deficit from the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Javier Hernandez gave Manchester United the lead just before the end of the first half,…
The Loan Report: April 4-10
Goals from Daniel Sturridge, Fabio Borini and Patrick van Aanholt, plus a red card for Sam Walker and the premature end of Conor Clifford’s spell at Notts County headline another hectic week in the land of the Chelsea loanee. Bolton’s 3-0 win over West Ham on Saturday saw England Under-21 striker Sturridge add two more goals to his Wanderers total, taking him to six since joining the club on loan…
FA Youth Cup: Chelsea 3-2 Manchester United
A brace from defender Nathaniel Chalobah and a second half effort from Bobby Devyne gave Chelsea’s youngsters a narrow one-goal lead after a fascinating first leg of their FA Youth Cup Semi Final against Manchester United. Having trailed at half time, the visitors responded superbly after the break and despite twice staring at a two-goal deficit, rallied to give themselves every chance of a turnaround at Old Trafford in ten…
The Harding Perspective: The United Blueprint
A little departure from the normal Harding Perspective today, taking a firm look at what went wrong in the first leg and how we can rectify these issues for the return leg on Tuesday. Firstly, we should not kid ourselves at the difficulty of the job at hand. Given the level of the performance required against United on Tuesday, the warm-up against Wigan hardly served as perfect preparation. An outing…
Hard Work On A Sunny Day
Chelsea prepared for their crunch match in Europe with a rather lacklustre win over Wigan Athletic. A second-half Florent Malouda goal proved to be enough to secure all three points and thereby maintaining hopes of overcoming Arsenal in the coming weeks. With a big match coming up in a few days, Carlo Ancelotti understandably rotated his side around and rested some of the key individuals. Frank Lampard, fresh from making his…
Loyalty Or Lunacy?
Generally speaking this ugly old beast doesn’t raise its head from beyond the old shed walls too often during a season, but when it does then boy do we know about it. Of course you guessed it, I’m talking “LOYALTY” points. So let’s look at the word loyalty first of all: Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause (Philosophers disagree as to what things…
Youth Cup Defence Reaches Semi Final Stage
Sandwiched in between this week’s marquee double-header against Manchester United in the Champions League is the first leg of another significant knockout tie against the Red Devils. On Sunday lunchtime, Stamford Bridge will host the first leg of this year’s FA Youth Cup Semi Final, as Chelsea seek to defend the crown they won eleven months ago. Standing in their way are as tough an opponent as the young Blues…