5 signs Chelsea’s future is bright after the Under-21s’ Checkatrade Trophy exit

Chelsea’s Under-21 side have been effectively knocked out of the Checkatrade Trophy following their 3-2 defeat by League Two Exeter City on Tuesday.

But it was not all doom and gloom for the visitors at St James Park, as two late goals from Ike Ugbo threatened to keep the tie alive and started a late fight-back for Chelsea.

The Blues’ Under-21s have one final group game in the competition, at home to Oxford United in three weeks’ time.

Not even a win will take them through to the next stage of the competition, but Chelsea’s young talents will want to both prove themselves against a League One side and gain vital experience against professional opposition.

SHOOT looks at five positives from Tuesday’s performance from a Chelsea perspective…

Ike Ugbo

Ugbo’s claimed his first goals in the Checkatrade Trophy this season making him Chelsea Under-21s’ top goalscorer in the competition.

Ugbo joined the Blues at Under-10 level and he has played in various positions coming through the youth ranks before committing to becoming a striker at the start of the 2014/2015 campaign.

Ugbo is currently on five goals for the season having already scored against West Ham’s Under-18s and against Liverpool and Reading for the Under-23s.

The 18-year-old constantly looked a threat on Tuesday evening and stood out for the visitors. His pace, power and shooting ability helped kick-start the Blues’ late comeback and he took both of his goals very well with both strikes coming from outside the penalty area.

‘Total Football’

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale used the quote “Total Football” to describe the brand of football played by Chelsea in this match.

Particularly in the second-half, Jacob Maddox and Kyle Scott, who both come on as substitutes, showed some very creative and intricate passing.

Alongside goalscorer Ugbo, the three of them were all involved in both goals and if the three had played together for the whole 90 minutes, the result could have been very different.

Chelsea’s only problem with keeping the ball and playing a quick passing game is that they struggled to deal with pressure when starting as a 4-3-3 against The Grecians. Their Devon-based opposition made themselves a nuisance going forward in the first-half and defensively, Chelsea were not able to play the ball out from the back, subsequently costing them the game.

Chelsea Under-21s manager Adrian Viveash realised their first-half tactics were not working and despite conceding early in the second period, the Blues’ second-half set-up proved to be a much more successful system and could have earned at least a point if they had played in a similar fashion for the whole 90 minutes.

Martell Taylor-Crossdale

The Under-18 striker featured as a substitute in Tuesday’s fixture, coming on in the 84th minute.

Despite being only 16-years-old, Taylor-Crossdale has had a phenomenal start to the Under-18 Premier League this campaign having scored nine times in seven starts, including two hat-tricks in the space of a week against Arsenal and Norwich City respectively.

Taylor-Crossdale’s appearance against Exeter was his second for the main development side having also played 25 minutes in their first Checkatrade Trophy match against Swindon Town.

It’s fair to say there are some seriously promising signs for this youngster and the striker has already scored one goal in three games for England’s Under-17 side.

Taylor-Crossdale is definitely a name to watch out for in the not-too-distant future. If he maintains his goalscoring streak at his current rate, we may be seeing this teenager with some first-team game time under his belt.

Dujon Sterling

Dujon Sterling started on Tuesday evening at left wing, but can comfortably play in defence, central midfield and as a striker, as well.

Despite Chelsea performing below par over the whole game at Exeter, Sterling did have a good performance and was one of the key players in the whole game.

His speed and crossing ability gave City full-back Pierce Sweeney a lot to deal with and Chelsea had a couple of good chances via Sterling’s creativity.

Dujon has already featured for England at Under-16 and Under-17 level, and is currently part of the Under-19 set up, where has been capped three times.

The 16-year-old is already showing signs of versatility and the attacking mind of the modern-day full-back. Sterling has scored once in seven appearances for Chelsea’s Under-23 side in Premier League 2 this term.

Fikayo Tomori

Tuesday evening’s captain Fikayo Tomori was by far the strongest member of the Blues’ back four against Exeter. He did well to lead his side on to a fightback when the game seemed near enough dead and buried.

Tomori was suited to Exeter’s long-ball tactic very well as he spent the majority of the first-half heading away City’s crosses.

The 18-year-old has been capped for two nations at youth level. In 2016, he made three appearances for Canada Under-20s, as well as featuring five times for England’s Under-19s, and once for their Under-20 squad.

Tomori has also featured once for Chelsea’s first-team, replacing Branislav Ivanovic for 30 minutes on the final day of the 2015/2016 season.

He shows the characteristics of a well-rounded centre-back who is comfortable in duels and on the ball.