U18's Season Review

As another season comes to a close it is time to look back and reflect on the events that have shaped the season in the Chelsea FC Academy, this week will I will be covering the U18's going over the highs and lows in what has been another greatly successful season.

League Campaign

In case you didn't already know the U18's league campaign was split into 2 rounds this season, the first round round is a league campaign with 2 leagues the north and the south league (Chelsea obviously being in the Southern league). Chelsea played each team in their league twice home and away and then the top 4 of each league go into a second play off league where you play each team once and the top team at the end of that is crowned Champions.

Chelsea's southern league campaign was a very successful one. At the end of the league Chelsea finished top, a whole 10 points above second placed Tottenham. Out of 22 games Chelsea had won 15, drawn 3 and lost 4. In terms of goals Chelsea scored an impressive 69 goals, the most across both the Northern and Southern leagues by a clear 10 goals, they conceded 35 goal giving them the best goal difference also across the 2 divisions.

So Chelsea went into the final group stage looking to win the league in good shape. However they would not go on to win the league, in the end they would finish third 1 point behind Everton in second and 3 points behind Middlesbrough who were the Champions this season. Out the seven games played in this final stage Chelsea won 4 drew 1 and lost 2. It still represents a very good season for the team especially since the ages of the players used got much younger for Chelsea at this stage of the season. Chelsea also finished the league campaign the leagues top scorer. Tammy Abraham was the leagues top scorer with 23 goals an impressive total for the young man.

FA Youth Cup

If you are reading this I am sure I do not need to tell you that Chelsea finished the FA Youth Cup campaign as Champions for the second consecutive year.

Chelsea started off the campaign with a very tough game against Leeds United, it was a tough game physically for the boys but they managed to overcome and win the game 2 - 0. That was followed up with a home game against Huddersfield which was a much more comfortable affair which finished 6 - 1 to the blues. Next up was Swansea, once again Chelsea would stick 6 goals in the opposition net and this time without reply to put them in to the quarter finals. The quarter final would be an away game against Newcastle at St James Park. In another tough game the blues would still come out top with a comfortable scoreline 3 - 0 winners to book a place in another semi final.

The 2 legged semi final would pit Chelsea against London rivals Tottenham. The semi final would prove to be a much trickier affair, the first leg away from home the Blues lost the game 2 - 0 giving them a lot to do in the home leg, however in true Chelsea style they managed to overcome the odds and win the home leg 5 - 2 making it 5 - 4 on aggregate in scenes reminiscent of last season game against Fulham. This season the final would be against Manchester City again over 2 legs. Chelsea would one again be playing the first leg away from home and they took control of the game and ran out 3 - 1 winners, seemingly giving them a comfortable home leg. Things looked shaky to start with in the home leg as they conceded first but there was no need to fear as Chelsea soon got back into the game and ran out 2 - 1 winners, 5 - 2 on aggregate and became champions once again.

Chelsea unsurprisingly had the top 2 goalscorers in the FA Youth Cup campaign Dom Solanke with 10 goals topped the charts and Tammy Abraham was 2 behind him with 8 goals.

Season Statistics

So as far as the figures for the season go Chelsea played a total of 37 games across the league and FA Youth Cup campaign.

This figure is 2 games less than what was played by the U18's last season.

A total of 33 players was used for the U18's teams this season, 12 fewer than last season.

Ruben Sammut was the top appearance maker with a total of 33 appearances, Kyle Scott was second with 31 and Mukhtar Ali was third with 28.

Tammy Abraham was the top scorer for the U18's this season with a total of 32 goals (in 26 apps), Dominic Solanke was second with 14 (in 12 apps) and Ike Ugbo (18 apps) and Miro Muheim (19 apps) were tied in third with 11.

Tammy Abraham's 32 goals this season for the U18's dwarfs Dominic Solanke's total for last season of 20.

In terms of assists Kyle Scott had the most with a very good total of 16, Tammy Abraham came second with assists with a total of 10 and Charlie Wakefield was third with 8.