Academy Report: Feruz and Brown run riot

There was plenty of game action this week at the Chelsea academy and it was good results that came for the U18's and U21's. The action started with the U18's hosting West Ham United at Cobham on Saturday.  As always when playing West Ham it was a close game but the Chelsea youngsters managed to come out 2 - 1 winners with the goals being scored by Tammy Abraham and George Cole. That win made it 2 wins from both of the opening fixtures this season for the U18's.

Right on the back of that was an U21's game against Leicester which was played at Stamford Bridge on the Saturday afternoon. There were changes to the team this week with Anjur Osmanovic starting following some impressive performances and U18's level, Islam Feruz starting in the number 10 role behind Isaiah Brown and Dion Conroy starting alongside Andreas Christensen in place of Nathan Ake. It was a strong performance from the boys and they ran out 5 - 1 winners. Isaiah Brown opened the scoring after being put through by John Swift and as we have seen on numerous occasions now Brown slotted home to take the lead. Islam Feruz then scored the second after latching onto a loose ball following some good work from Osmanovic. That took the blues into half time with a good deserved 2 - 0 lead.

At half time Billy Clifford came on to replace Osmanovic and Clifford would prove to be pivotal to everything that we did in the second half. Islam Feruz scored his second of the game after Clifford found him in space and having moved into the strikers role showed why he is best used there and blasted home into the far corner. It wasn't long after that when Brown showed his quality again, having also been found by Clifford he curled a wonderful shot into the top corner to make it 4 for Chelsea. Billy Clifford would then with a lovely bit of skill force his way into the 6 yard box and play it back to John Swift who made no mistake in slotting home. Unfortunately Chelsea could not keep a clean sheet and Leicester go themselves a consolation goal to make the final score 5 - 1.

It was a very impressive performance and one that Dermot will be hoping to take on and build on. With plenty of talent at his disposal considering Davey, Kiwomya and Boga were not involved in this bodes well for the season. You see the highlights of this game here:

The U18's had a second game this week when they took on Norwich away on Wednesday. It would be a replay of last seasons FA Youth Cup Final in which Norwich managed to win after a disappointing outing from Chelsea in the final. This time though they would cancel themselves out with the game finishing 1 - 1 George Cole again on the scoresheet. Norwich featured 5 players from last seasons cup final while Chelsea only 2, Musonda and Aina being the 2. It was a decent result away from home against a decent Norwich side. You be able to see highlights of both U18's games on my YouTube channel this evening.

On the loan front it seems that Billy Clifford and had his loan at Yeovil terminated and the club will be looking to find him a new loan move this week and the back of his U21's performance i am sure there are plenty of clubs interested in taking him on. It was Capital One Cup this week and there was loanee on the scoresheet once again and it was Patrick Bamford who after recovering from his injury is certainly wasting no time in banging in the goals. Thibaut Courtois kept back to back clean sheets this week, one of which coming against Barcelona. Lucas Piazon and Patrick Van Aanholt both started for Vitesse against Twente this week and Thorgan Hazard continues to impress at Wargarem this season.

It was also the draw for the Champions League this week and as you will know Chelsea have been drawn agains Schalke, Steaua Bucharest and Basel. What you may not know is that this is also the draw for the newly formed UEFA Youth League which means some interesting fixtures for the youngsters.

Finally it was confirmed yesterday that Nathaniel Chalobah has signed a new 5 year deal with the club. It is a big show of confidence in the young man who Jose has said has a future at Chelsea. We still await to see what the immediate future is for Chalobah but given there has been some stories of clubs sniffing around for him it is certainly good to see him tied to the club for another 5 years.

This weeks action will see the U18's take on Everton away from home this morning, a tough fixture but one that we will be hoping to see the lads carry on their decent form. The U21's meanwhile will not play again until the 13th September. But of course the transfer window closes on Monday and there is sure to be activity for Chelsea with Christian Atsu about to be signed and potentially loaned to Vitesse there could be more signings like this done. But more likely is the loans going out, McEachran, Chalobah and Clifford will all be at new clubs come next week.