Chelsea won the South. Manchester City won the North. Then they met in the final, and Chelsea won it all.
It was a fitting end to the Baby Blues’ dominant U18 Premier League campaign. We won the Southern section by a whopping thirteen points over second place Tottenham Hotspur, losing just three of the 28 games played and getting better and better as the season went along. We would win our final six games by an average margin of over four goals, and we would continue that trend by absolutely blowing
City away, 5-1 in the National Final at Stamford Bridge last night.
The Blues were up two inside ten minutes, and never looked back. Chizzy Ezenwata tapped home to get the party started in the seventh minute before Mathis Eboué doubled our lead just a couple minutes later. City did get one back through one of our own, Ryan McAidoo, who joined them a couple years ago after five years in the Chelsea system, but Ryan Kavuma-McQueen restored our two-goal before half time. City’s goalkeeper didn’t always cover himself in glory, but he made several excellent saves throughout the night. But eventually RKM himself would add the fifth at the very end, though not before Sol Gordon scored perhaps the pick of the bunch — all set up by a ridiculous pass from Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli (remember the name!).
This is Chelsea’s first U18 Premier League title in a surprisingly long time. Not since 2018 have we been able to claim this trophy. That all-conquering team eight years ago was led by Jody Morris, and featured the likes of Reece James, Marc Guéhi, Conor Gallagher, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Billy Gilmour, Tariq Lamptey, and several others who have gone on to careers in professional football, many of them at the highest levels.
Congrats to all involved in getting Chelsea back to the top of the pile this season. We’ve seen some of these kids at the senior level already — RKM, Eboué, Reggie Walsh, Landon Emenalo, for example — and hopefully they will go on to find just as much success as those who had come before them.
