Chelsea’s remarkable FA Youth Cup run continued in the most unlikely of circumstances as they turned a 3-0 half time deficit into a dramatic, late, 4-3 victory. First half strikes from David Morgan and Jordan Palmer-Samuels sandwiched a Nathan Aké own goal to leave Eoin Jess’ boys 3-0 up and firmly in control of affairs, but an astonishing second half saw Lucas Piazon get a foothold in the game before…
A much-changed and much younger Chelsea Reserve team won a hard-fought local derby against West London rivals Fulham on Monday afternoon as goals from Romelu Lukaku, Ismail Seremba and Patrick Bamford secured a 3-2 victory. Fulham twice responded from behind with strikes courtesy of first-teamers Kerim Frei and Pajtim Kasami but were undone late in the game by Bamford, who won a disputed penalty kick which he converted to mark…
A highly productive week on the loan front, perhaps the most impressive of the season, saw Gael Kakuta’s finest hour in the professional game and a goal for Kevin de Bruyne amongst a number of positive events over the past seven days. After sitting on the bench away to Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG in midweek French Cup action, Kakuta was restored to the Dijon starting line-up for the weekend home match…
One of Chelsea’s youngest Under-18 line-ups of the season went down 3-1 on Saturday morning to a Southampton team who got their business done early. A pair of talented England Under-17 internationals did the damage as the Saints were three goals to the good inside eight minutes. First, a free kick from the right was beautifully delivered by Luke Shaw and headed home at the far post before Shaw himself…
For the second round in a row Chelsea kept their FA Youth Cup hopes alive courtesy of a penalty shootout after a dramatic 120 minutes against West Ham United. Lewis Baker’s opening goal highlighted a sterling first half performance by the Blues but they were pegged back shortly before the break. Islam Feruz restored the lead but Blair Turgott drew the Hammers level again before Elliott Lee’s stoppage time strike…
Chelsea’s reserve team took part in a wild encounter this afternoon against a Gillingham team comprising fringe first-team players and reserves, and ended up on the right side of a nine-goal spectacular scoreline. Early goals by Jacob Mellis and George Saville had the Blues comfortably ahead at the break, but Callum Davies replied for the visitors at the start of what was to prove an unbelieable second half. Schoolboy substitute…
Gael Kakuta scored his second goal in as many starts for Dijon to mark the highlight of what was generally another productive week for Chelsea youngsters on the loan front. Not everyone played, but those that did generally did from the start, and made some sort of impact. Kakuta was the only one to get his name on the scoresheet, and in doing so the young Frenchman sent a message…
Andreas Christensen, a 16 year-old Danish defender currently playing for Brondby, will join Chelsea on a four-year deal at the end of the season, according to reports in Denmark this morning. Christensen has previously been linked with a move to the Blues, but also received interest from a host of other top European clubs, with Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool all said to have been keen on the centre-back. However,…
After two or three weeks of transfer window activity and impactful performances, things quietened down this week on the loan front with a handful of names taking more of a backseat role after hitting the headlines throughout January. There are, however, two new names to cover from now on. Excitement over Kevin De Bruyne’s €9m arrival may have been tempered by the fact he is unlikely to be seen in…
op·por·tu·ni·ty Noun: A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. When discussing youth and reserve team football and player development, everything comes back to this single word. Opportunity. It might arise through merit, or it may be through fate, but without it, a player cannot prove himself worthy. Opportunity is, at times unfortunately, at the behest of circumstance. Rarely in the upper echelons of the game is…