After both teams were eliminated from the Malaysia Champions Youth Cup, the season got underway at Arsenal's training ground at Shenley in Hertfordshire on Saturday, but it wasn't good day for the Blues Academy.
Despite taking the lead inside four minutes from a Lee Sawyer goal after a cross from Ben Gordon, the Arsenal side rallied and run out 3-1 winners.
New Academy boss Paul Clement said, "We had an attack ourselves but we kept going back and back and allowed them to score with a shot outside the box. We then had two good chances before the break, both falling to Miroslav Stoch. One shot brought out a good save and the other a rebound which we didn't do enough to anticipate."
Clement continued and said, "At half-time, Arsenal had probably had the better possession but we'd had the better chances. We had a bad spell early in the second half when we could have been better organised when they scored from a free-kick on 51 minutes and then we allowed a third from a quick switch of play to the right on 57minutes.
Clement finished by saying, "Sawyer hit the bar late on and with the way the game went, the scoreline could have been closed. We had a young side out, a little younger than Arsenal's and it was not a bad performance."
Chelsea Team:
Niclas Heimann, Jeffrey Bruma, Carl Magnay (c), Patrick van Aanholt, Ben Gordon, Jordan Hibbert (Adam Phillip), Lee Sawyer, Jacob Mellis (Jordan Tabor), Daniel Philliskirk, Morton Nielsen (Jack Saville), Miroslav Stoch.