Chelsea U18 with rare loss in FA Youth Cup final to Manchester City

Chelsea’s habit of making FA Youth Cups finals continued with Friday’s 1-0 win over Manchester United. Unfortunately, our habit of winning FA Youth Cup finals did not. The U18s lost to Manchester City this evening at St George’s Park.

Chelsea had beaten City three times in finals over the past decade, in 2015, 2016, and 2017, but this time the country’s other top class academy prevailed, by the odd goal in five, to collect the trophy of this greatly delayed 2019-20 edition of the Youth Cup.

Chelsea drew first blood, through the excellent Marcel Lewis, before City equalized quickly. Then City drew first blood in the second half, before Lewis equalized quickly via a deflection. But just as it looked like the game might be headed to penalty kicks (just like last year, when City lost to Liverpool), Cole Palmer of the wrong shade of blue found the back of the net to make it 3-2, and there wasn’t enough time left for Chelsea to equalize — though Peart-Harris came ever so close in the 94th minute.

By all accounts it was a pulsating and unpredictable encounter on a windy night and just a couple days after playing the semifinals, with City hitting woodwork twice, but Chelsea certainly posing plenty of danger as well.

Alas it was not meant to be.

Chelsea are now 7-2 in FA Youth Cup finals since 2010. That’s still a ridiculous record over the past 11 seasons, and there’s little doubting that we’ll be back in a few months, in the 2020-21 edition.