The Blues Brief

Article by e-Chelsea Correspondent Robert Wake

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e-Chelsea Weekly News Round Up

On The Pitch

26 April – Chelsea Youth 0-4 Manchester City Youth. A very young Chelsea team featuring six under-15’s suffered only their second league defeat of the campaign against the more experienced visitors.

27 April – Manchester City Women 1-3 Chelsea Ladies. Chelsea’s Ladies recorded an impressive victory against their Manchester City counterparts to progress to the semi-finals of the FA Women’s Cup. City’s Toni Duggan cancelled out an early goal from Laura Coombs. Eniola Aluko restored the lead, and Katie Chapman added a third in the second half.

27 April – Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea. Chelsea put in a remarkable performance at Anfield on Sunday to breathe new life into their title chances, while severely denting those of Liverpool. A much changed line-up, including Tomas Kalas making his debut at centre-half, carried out a thoroughly disciplined performance, negating Liverpool’s attacking threat, and striking with two goals to take all three points. Demba Ba edged Chelsea ahead on the stroke of half time, capitalising on a mistake by Steven Gerrard to slot coolly past Simon Mignolet. As Liverpool pressed for a late equaliser that would have kept the destiny of the title in their own hands, Chelsea broke quickly, with Fernando Torres teeing up Willian for a tap-in to seal the win.

28 April – Fulham Youth 3-2 Chelsea Youth. Fulham take a slender advantage into the second leg of the FA Youth Cup Final at Stamford Bridge next Monday following a 3-2 victory at Craven Cottage. Jay Dasilva put Chelsea ahead, before Moussa Dembele levelled for the home side. Emerson Hyndman put Fulham ahead again, and Cameron Burgess doubled the Cottager’s lead, but a late goal from Charly Musonda leaves the tie in the balance.

29 April – Chelsea Youth 2-7 Tottenham Youth. With most of the regulars unavailable, a young side featuring 13 schoolboys were well beaten by a vastly more experienced Tottenham outfit at Cobham on Tuesday. George Brady scored twice for The Blues.

30 April – Chelsea 1-3 Atletico Madrid. Chelsea’s Champions League adventure ended painfully at the hands of an excellent Atletico Madrid team on Wednesday night. After a cagey opening, Chelsea took the lead on 35 minutes. Willian worked tirelessly to win the ball and feed Cesar Azpilicueta. The full-back, my choice for Player of The Year, crossed for Fernando Torres to shoot past Thiabault Courtois. Stamford Bridge erupted, but the celebrations were cut short a minute before the interval when Atletico grabbed a vital away goal. Chelsea failed to deal with a routine ball into the area, and Diego Costa headed back across goal for Adrian Lopez to convert from close range. The game swung irrevocably the visitor’s way on the hour when Samuel Eto’o’s rash challenge on Costa, allowed the same player to smash home the penalty. There seemed no way back, and that feeling was rubber-stamped on 71 minutes when the impressive Arda Turan scored a third after his header had come back to him off the crossbar. Disappointing as the defeat was, it must be remembered that Atletico currently head a league containing both Barcelona and Real Madrid. On Wednesday’s evidence, it was easy to see why.

01 May – Reading Women 1-2 Chelsea Ladies. Chelsea Ladies came from behind to defeat Reading Women in their FA WSL Continental Cup fixture with goals from Eniola Aluko and Laura Bassett.

01 May – Manchester City U21’s 1-1 Chelsea U21’s (4-5 on Penalties). The Blues Under-21’s progressed to the League Play-off Final after a nerve-jangling win on Penalties at The Etihad. Islam Feruz gave us the lead after 15 minutes, but Olivier Ntcham levelled for City 15 minutes from time. Extra-time failed to find a winner, so the match went to a penalty shoot-out. Though Kasey Palmer missed for The Blues, Andreas Christensen, Lewis Baker, John Swift, Izzy Brown and finally Ruben Loftus-Cheek all converted, while Jamal Blackman made fine saves from Ntcham and Seko Fofana to send Chelsea through to the final against either Manchester United or Liverpool.

Off The Pitch

27 April – Chelsea’s Eden Hazard has won the PFA Young Player of The Year Award. Petr Cech and Gary Cahill joined Hazard in the PFA Team of The Season.

30 April – The new home kit for the 2014-15 season has gone on sale today. The kit takes inspiration from designs of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and features engineered fabric showing contrasting blue tones on the front panel, including a two-tone striped design, and also includes the latest premium adidas technologies such as the industry-leading breathable material - ClimaCool.

30 April - For the third time this season the team has won the Performance of the Week Award, with the 2-0 victory at Liverpool judged the best display by any team in the top four divisions by the League Managers Association.

Looking Ahead

04 May – Chelsea v Norwich City. Premier League, Stamford Bridge, Kick-off 16:00hrs (BST). The game is being shown live on Sky Sports.

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