Chelsea are Barclays Under-21 Premier League Champions after a 2-1 win over Manchester United in the national Final at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. On an evening of drama and superb entertainment from two of the foremost youth setups in the country, United took an early lead through Tom Lawrence but Chelsea were soon on terms when Charly Musonda displayed guile and trickery to dance his way through for a…
The season may be winding down and the overall number of Chelsea loanees continues to dwindle with campaigns wrapping up across Europe, but the goalscoring streak that has been alive since the opening weekend back in July is alive and kicking. Thorgan Hazard and Romelu Lukaku took it into a 38th week over the past seven days and we begin with the irrepressible Belgian duo. Headliners Hazard has been terrific…
It was a match that came with the most ridiculous script. Hollywood would barely have accepted it as a realistic proposal, but in what will in all likelihood be the final match played on the Stamford Bridge pitch this season, Chelsea’s Under-18s won a fifth FA Youth Cup, a third in five seasons and a second in three, and they did it in unbelievable circumstances. Trailing 3-2 to Fulham from…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…