Not our strongest side by any means but still overcame Arsenal's. 3 wins out of 3 against the Goons this season now Haven't seen the match but will try and catch it on Chelsea TV . Congrats to the boys. Final is on Monday
Get innnnnn!!. 0-1 down at half time, 3-1 after 86 mins, chucked it away 3-3 after 90 mins. Lewis Baker got the winner in ET. Blimey, dunno how I managed to keep refreshing Internet Explorer through all the anxiety - literally, every click on the refresh button was a nail-biter. Can't wait to see it on Chelsea TV. Lewis Baker. Technically very good, but by no means the standout player in the youth team. He does however, have the uncanny habit of performing when it's needed most. Scored two vital goals, including the winner. The ability to dig deep and drag yourself up, ie the 'hero' characteristic, is priceless - something that Drogba had in abundance, and something that Baker also has. Defo one for the future but alas - ANOTHER outstanding young midfielder......... we have waaaay too many - not sure if we're actually going to be able to give them all an equal chance to prove themselves. The worrying thing is, some players mature late, so if we allow players to move on at say age 22 for lack of first team action (McEachran comes to mind, but could include a whole raft of our other kids including the likes of Piazon, DeBruyne, Baker, etc etc), but then he somehow moves onto the next level age 25, we'll sure be kicking ourselves.
Wouldn't it be nice to see some of our youngsters get a leg up! I always remember when I first started watching us we always seemed to be battling against relegation under Ted Drake when we had a junior side that was the best in the land! Then Tommy Docherty came along, promoted Tambling , Bridges , Shellito, Venables Harris, Cliss and Bonetti to the first team and we were damn near Champions! We would have been if he hadn't thrown a strop after the "Blackpool incident" and dropped them for the last 5 games!
I watched the whole thing, was an excellent game. Loftus-Cheek and Boga came off in the 2nd half when we were 3-1 up and it all went wrong. We were in control at that point. We tried to sit back and hold the 3-1 lead but it didn't work at all. We went for it again in ET and grabbed the winner after some great work by Swift (one of the subs) Defensively we were really poor. Gnabry got the better of Wright at Left Back virtually every time. Didn't think much to Christensen at Right Back either. Two Centre Backs were poor too, although i've seen Davey a few times this season and he's looked class. We'd have been better off with Ake in there but i'm guessing he has first team duty? We were good going forward though, Boga made a few great runs and the one leading up to our second goal was the highlight of the match. Glided past about 4 players. Loftus-Cheek and Baker dominated (eventually) and looked a great partnernship. Both have excellent futures in the game without a doubt. Commentator compared Loftus-Cheek to Socrates when he went off too.... Feruz works hard and took his goal, reminds me a lot of Tevez in the way he runs around a bit like a terrier, really good player. Think the final is on Monday and assuming we have the strongest squad we have a great chance. Hopefully it's as good as the Semi was today!
Baker and Feruz were fantastic. Got some real talent in this side and I just hope the powers that be don't screw them all up.
I think Ake will play in the final after probably playing tomorrow for the first team. Speaking of our youngsters Todd Kane got a man of the match award for Blackburn today, Irish Villa on monday for the Next Gen Cup, that and the Europa League and we have everything haha
Watched the replay on CTV last night! After all the bossing we did its amazing how it went to extra time!
