Academy: Season kicks of at last

So the football season has officially started at the Chelsea academy but before we get to the first game of a brand new season there is plenty to catch up on. The U18's kicked off the week with another pre season win this time against Bristol City with a 2 - 1 win Adam Nditi and Anjur Osmanovic with the goals, Osmanovic has been top goal scorer for the U18's this pre season scoring 3 goals.

It was then the turn for the U21's to play another pre season game before the big kick off and on Saturday they faced Wealdstone and game away with another impressive win, this time 4 - 1 John Swift, Alex Kiwomya and a brace for Izzy Brown secured another win for the U21's. All 3 of those players have been in impressive goal scoring form in pre season Kiwomya and Swift both with 6 goals a piece and new signing Izzy Brown with 5.

Saturday also saw the start of competitive loan action in the Football league and there was starts for Milan Lalkovic, George Saville and Sam Walker. Billy Clifford and Patrick Bamford started on the bench for their teams, Bamford was able to come on but Clifford stayed on the bench. It was a good debut in particular for Slovakian winger Milan Lalkovic who managed to not only score a goal but provide an assist for another of Walsall's goals. Sam Walker meanwhile managed to keep a clean sheet in his first game of the season so he will have been very pleased with that. Todd Kane would also start for Blackburn Rovers in Sunday's live game and played the full 90 minutes and over in Holland Patrick Van Aanholt started in Vitesse Arnhem's first league game of the season, Gael Kakuta not involved due to injury.

Tuesday evening saw the U21's bring their pre season to a close with a game against Hendon which saw a very different team line up for the U21's than has been previously used. There was starts for senior youngsters Josh McEachran and Nathaniel Chalobah and also invloved was past players Jon Harley and Jody Morris. Once again the U21's managed to come out victorious with a 2 - 0 win the goals coming from Josh McEachran from the penalty spot and the second was scored by trialist Ben Pattie. Highlights of this final pre season game are here:

There was more loan action also on Tuesday as it was the first round of the Capital One Cup and there was starts for Bamford, Clifford, Lalkovic and Walker and there was a first appearance on the bench for Danny Pappoe. There was no goals scored by the youngsters all though Patrick Bamford did manage to contribute an assist. Sam Walker meanwhile was on the unfortunate end of 5 - 1 defeat and Colchester exit the cup all the other boys meanwhile progressed. George Saville did not feature as a starter or on the bench for Brentford in their game.

There was confirmation this week of another loan move this time for Christian Cuevas who joins up with Gael Kakuta and Patrick Van Aanholt at Vitesse. Also joining Vitesse this week is Lucas Piazon, it had been talked about for a while but with Vitesse missing out on Europa League football is was thought that Vitesse might no longer be an option for him but it was confirmed yesterday that Lucas will be spending the season at the Dutch club. No doubt the loan futures of McEachran and Chalobah will also be decided very soon so that is something to look out for.

More positive news also this week in that Nathan Ake has signed a new 5 year deal with the club. It is reward for a fine season last year when he made a number of first team appearances and put in top performances for the U21's and also in the FA Youth Cup.

The U21's finally kicked of the new season with a game against Tottenham. Both teams fielded strong teams Chelsea including Josh McEachran and Nathaniel Chalobah. Tottenham's side was stronger than ours on the day and they ran out 4 - 2 winners despite Chelsea taking an early lead with a McEachran penalty. It was then all Spurs and the Chelsea youngsters were chasing shadows and Spurs kept pressing their advantage and scoring goals until it was 4 - 1. Chelsea did manage to pull a second goal back through Izzy Brown following a decent through ball from Nathan Ake. It is a hard start for the U21's but in the long run it will be good for the younger players like Wright, Loftus-Cheek, Boga, Brown, Kiwomya and Feruz.

Extended highlights of this game will be available on my YouTube channel this evening.

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