Academy Report: U21's win again

Another action packed week in the Chelsea academy started last Saturday when the U18's visited Manchester United in the league. The team that was put out was a strong one with Collins in goal a back four of Dabo, Brady, Clarke-Salter and Aina. The midfield of Ali and Houghton with the attacking midfield trio of Da Silva, Colkett and Musonda behind Mitchell.

It was a good performance from the youngsters and they took an early lead through Jordan Houghton who judged the bounce of the ball better than his opponent and moved forward to unleash a shot from well over 20 yards out and passed the keeper. The blues should have extended their lead with some good play but were unable to take the chances that fell to them and eventually United would get a late equaliser to finish the game in a draw.

Highlights of the game are here:

In a brief summary of the loan players there was goals scored this week by Patrick Bamford who continues and excellent season of goal scoring. Romelu Lukaku was again on the score sheet, this in the same week when stories have started to surface that Chelsea are going to sell him in the summer with Tottenham and Spurs reportedly interested but Jose has said that there have been no bids for him from either club.

Christian Cuevas has also picked up his first goal of the season at FC Eindhoven whilst Thorgan Hazard also got himself on the score sheet after having been on a streak of 15 games without scoring. Finally young Bertrand Traore scored his first professional goal at Vitesse this week which will hopefully be the first of many for the young attacking midfielder.

Just as side note it was reported this week that the Dutch FA will be investigating the link that Chelsea has with Vitesse to see if they are in anyway owned by Chelsea. Undoubtedly this is a pointless exercise born out of silly comments by Vitesse former "owner" and unease among the dutch league with the relationship.

Finally this week the U21's were in action last night away to Stoke as the blues looked to further cement a spot in the top four of the league and secure a play off spot. The game was a good performance in the end for Chelsea and Chelsea took an early leak through Andreas Christensen latching on to a Lewis Baker free kick. It would take well into the second half for Chelsea to extend their lead but they would do through a trademark Alex Kiwomya run fed by a John Swift through ball and finally Lewis Baker grabbed his own goal running onto a ball from Dabo.

All in all another good week in the academy and with more to look forward to this week as the U21's are back in action on Monday in a top of the table clash with Liverpool which is followed up on Thursday by a huge U18's FA Youth cup semi final at Stamford Bridge against Arsenal.