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Chelsea have retained the FA Youth Cup after beating Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. Under the watchful gaze of Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, under-18 manager Joe Edwards saw his side come from a goal down in the second leg to win 2-1 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate.

The young Blues were confident going into the tie, having already won the first leg 3-1 in Manchester. But they had to show their resolve when Kelechi Iheanacho put the Sky Blues one up after just six minutes.

Izzy Brown soon put the Londoners back on level terms when he headed in captain Charlie Colkett’s cross. Then, early in the second half, Tammy Abraham steered Dominic Solanke’s cross into the back of the net to all but end the match as a contest.

It was, incredibly, Abraham’s 39th goal in all competitions this season, and those goals have helped steer the Chelsea youth side to their fourth FA Youth Cup in the past six seasons.

On their way to the final the Chelsea team have had to overcome Tottenham, Newcastle and Swansea. They were rewarded on the night of the final by not only being watched by Abramovich, but also by Chelsea’s Technical Director Michael Emenalo and the Chairman Bruce Buck.

It remains to be seen whether any of the players will be able to take the step up to the first team, but the future is looking very bright indeed for the club that will soon be crowned Premier League Champions.

The Professional Footballer’s Association has named Chelsea winger Eden Hazard the Player Of The Year. The Belgian has scored 13 goals and created 8 assists in the Premier League this year, and is one of the chief reasons that Chelsea are heading towards winning the league title.

Last year Hazard was awarded the Young Player Of The Year award – a gong taken by Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane this time around – and he was delighted to take the main prize this year.

“I’m very happy”, he said. “One day I want to be the best and what I did this season is play very well”.

The midfielder’s fellow professionals vote on the Player Of The Year award, and being the recipient of it left Hazard feeling humbled. He said, “I don’t know if I deserve to win but it is good for me. It is better to be voted by the players [as] they know everything about football.

Alan Shearer, the ex-Newcastle United forward and now a pundit for the BBC, believes that the Belgian will keep getting better. In a blog for the broadcaster Shearer wrote, “Wrapping up the league title with Chelsea will still be what matters most to Hazard this season. But being voted PFA Player Of The Year will mean a lot to him too”.

Shearer continued, “The bad news for Chelsea’s rivals is that, at 24, Hazard is only going to get better. In 3 or 4 years, I think we could be talking about the Belgian being the best player in the world – he has the potential to be that good”.

It’s Hazard’s consistency for the Blues that Shearer thinks is what has earned him the gong from his fellow professionals. Diego Costa might have been banging the goals in throughout the season, but his injuries meant he hasn’t sustained that form. Hazard, meanwhile, has created the most goal-scoring chances in the league and attempted and completed the most dribbles, too.

While Hazard took the personal accolade at the PFA event, the Chelsea team’s sterling season was also recognised when the PFA Team Of The Year was announced. Costa and Hazard both featured in the attacking part of the team, but the Blues also dominated the defence.

Nemanja Matic, Chelsea’s defensive midfield rock, was in the centre of the Team Of The Year, with Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry and Gary Cahill all lining up at the back.

Ex-Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard was also honoured at the event when he and Steven Gerrard were jointly presented with the PFA Merit Award. Both players are off to play Major League Soccer in the summer and have collected 220 England caps between them. But it was the current Chelsea crop who were the toast of the town, with the Belgian winger taking all of the accolades.

Eden Hazard has been one of Chelsea’s key players this season, and his blistering performances have caught the eye of people outside of Stamford Bridge.

Not only is the Belgian looking to be a shoe-in for the PFA Player Of The Year Award – an award voted on by members of the player’s union, the Professional Footballer’s Association – but he has also won the admiration of Real Madrid’s coach Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane, when asked about Eden Hazard’s play this season, said, “I like everything he does on the pitch…I like the way he carries himself. That decisive streak in him, and the fact that he’s improving every year”.

He also said that Hazard should be thought of in the same bracket as Messi and Ronaldo – players that are commonly considered to be the best in the world. Zidane said, “They’re fantastic players, but I like Hazard a lot too”.

This posturing from the Real Madrid camp is bound to set some bells ringing at Stamford Bridge, despite the fact that Hazard signed a new five-and-a-half-year contract at The Bridge in February.

Real Madrid have long had a tactic of releasing information to the press to the turn the head’s of potential targets, and it seems as though Eden Hazard is their latest target.

In the summer of 2013 Real Madrid angered the Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy by constantly making overtures towards the then Spurs player Gareth Bale. Quotes from people associated with the Spanish giants about how good Bale was and how well he’d fit into the system emerged in the press on a regular basis. By September 1st the Welshman had signed up with the Madrid team.

Having already won the League Cup and being well on their way to winning the League, neither Mourinho nor those in the Chelsea hierarchy will be overly concerned by Zidane’s comments. They will, however, be sure to keep a close eye on words emerging from the Bernabeu. Comments such as Zidane saying, “He can still get better…and I think he’s a big reason why Chelsea are top of the table” will ensure Mourinho keeps his ace winger as happy as possible.

Arsene Wenger has said that he hopes Cesc Fabregas gets “the respect he deserves” when Chelsea face Arsenal at The Emirates over the weekend.

Fabregas only managed to win an FA Cup medal during his time at Arsenal, though he became a firm fans’ favourite and developed into one of the most technically gifted midfielders in the world.

Fabregas joined Arsenal in 2003 at the age of just 16, staying with the Gunners for nearly 8 years. He left for his boyhood club in 2011 and went on to win La Liga, Copa Del Ray and the UEFA Super Cup with the Spanish Giants.

In the summer of 2014 Arsene Wenger turned down a chance to buy Fabregas back from Barcelona, resulting in the Spaniard joining Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea team for a fee believed to be in the region of £30 million.

Wenger has played down the notion that he should regret not re-signing Fabregas by saying, “The regret I have is that he wanted to leave here. This club and myself had a very positive influence on Cesc’s life, so I would be a bit uncomfortable to have to justify today why he is not here. I believe I would rather it was the other way around”.

Arsenal trail Chelsea by 10 points and are, realistically, the only team that could stop the Blues from winning the title. Wenger will be hoping that he can lead his Arsenal team to their first victory against Jose Mourinho’s men in 12 times of asking. He’ll also be keen to ensure that his decision not to resign Fabregas doesn’t come back to haunt him.

Chelsea and Arsenal are two of the clubs that are likely to be affected by UEFA’s new rules regarding seeding in the Champion’s League.

Previously teams that were in the Champion’s League were seeded according to performances in the 5 previous seasons. Generally that tended to lead to the bigger teams avoiding each other in the early stages of the competition.

For the 2015-2016 season, however, UEFA have changed the ranking rules to mean that the top 8 seeds will belong to the winners of the top 7 leagues in Europe, as well as the current holders of the competition.

In previous years their consistent performances in the Champion’s League meant that both Arsenal and Chelsea were placed in Pot 1 when it came to the group stage draw. Now, as both teams have been knocked out of the competition and therefore can’t possibly win in, only the Premier League Champion’s will be seeded in the top group.

As that looks likely to be Chelsea, Jose Mourinho will be pleased to see his team gaining a top ranking. When he looks a little closer, however, it means there’s a likelihood the Blues could face a tough group. With only the winners of each league gaining top seed status, Chelsea could be in Pot 1 and yet still face the likes of Real Madrid, PSG, Lazio or Wolfsburg.

Mourinho was quick to play down an incident that took place in the closing stages of Chelsea’s defeat of Queen’s Park Rangers on Sunday. After Cesc Fabregas scored the winner for the Blues, objects appeared to rain down on the Chelsea players from the stands.

Coins and plastic bottles seemed to be amongst the things hurled towards the Chelsea players, and Branislav Ivanovic held his neck in pain when a lighter struck him.

Mourinho, however, didn’t want to make too big a deal of it; saying after the match: “If, at the end of the game, someone threw a pound coin, put it in your pocket. If someone threw a chocolate, eat it. It is no problem. Everybody needs a pound”.

Though his response might have been slightly tongue in cheek, the Portuguese manager had some sympathy with the difficult job the referee had to control such a highly charged occasion. He said, “The game was correct in the pitch and correct in the stands. It is not easy in an emotional game.”

He was far more forgiving than the QPR manager Chris Ramsey, who came down hard on the perpetrators of the offence. He stated, “I don’t know what happened and I didn’t see it, but if that’s the case [that things were thrown] we don’t want those people back in the club”.

The win over their London rivals put Chelsea 7 points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand, meaning they are one step closer to another Premier League title. If they win their game in hand then they’ll be 10 points clear with 18 points left to play for. Another 3 victories from their remaining fixtures will be enough for Mourinho to win his third title with the West London club.

Mourinho must have been speaking through gritted teeth recently when he admitted he agreed with Arsene Wenger over the Arsenal manager’s claim that the Ballon d’Or is a waste of time.

Wenger and Mourinho have had numerous fallings-out during their time together in the Premier League, with the Frenchman famously getting physical when he pushed his Portuguese counterpart earlier this season when their teams faced each other at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho, meanwhile, is hardly an innocent party in the matter, having constantly got underneath Wenger’s skin by calling him a “specialist in failure” and “a voyeur”, amongst other things.

The Chelsea manager completely agrees with Wenger, though, when it comes to football’s most prestigious award for individuals. The Ballon d’Or, in its current incarnation, has been awarded to the best player in the world since 2010. National team managers and captains, as well as the press, vote on who they think should win the award.

Wenger and Mourinho agree that awarding the best player in the world a trophy detracts from the notion of the team; that football as a concept is more important than any one player.

“For me”, said Mourinho, “football is collective. The individual is welcome if you want to make our group better. But you have to work for us”.

He went on to add, “When the top player arrives, the team is already there. It’s not him who comes to discover the team, like Columbus discovering America. No, no, you are coming now to help us be better”.

The Portuguese manager’s comments are enlightening, given that some feel he is the ultimate example of a manager who depends on superstars. Real Madrid have long been known for their Galácticos – world-famous, expensive players brought in with the specific aim of winning trophies. Having spent £225 million before Mourinho’s arrival, there as manager he went on to spend a further £82 million. His singings included Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Angel Di Maria. All of those are undoubtedly individual stars in their own right.

But others would argue that Mourinho is the master of getting the most out of his team, with players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba willing to run through the proverbial brick wall if he asked them to.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, Jose Mourinho doesn’t often agree with Arsene Wenger, so it’s safe to presume he feels strongly about the lack of importance of the Ballon d’Or.

Jose Mourinho has offered an opinion on the contract situation of Raheem Sterling at Liverpool by saying that “every player has his price”.

The 20-year-old Liverpool forward has come on to Chelsea’s radar since he reportedly rejected a £100,000 a week offer from the Merseyside club. Whilst a host of clubs appear to be monitoring the youngster, Chelsea might consider themselves slight favourites for his signature should he decide to leave Liverpool.

Sterling was born in Jamaica but moved to London when he was 5, meaning that a return to the capital might be a strong part of the English International’s thinking if and when he starts to look for a new club. That, combined with the fact that the Blues can still out-bid most other teams – especially their North London rivals Arsenal – should a bidding war ensue, means that Chelsea could be Sterling’s first choice destination if he left the Reds.

Jose Mourinho confessed that he has some sympathy with Brendan Rodgers over the contract wrangle, but also admitted “I don’t like players that don’t want to play for me and my club”.

The Portuguese manager compared Sterling’s situation at Liverpool with that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Mourinho was Inter Milan boss. The Swedish International told Mourinho and the Inter Milan hierarchy that he wanted to leave to go to Barcelona, so the deal was duly done.

On Sterling, Mourinho feels that “every player has a price. It doesn’t matter which player”. As an example Mourinho chose to talk about Eden Hazard who has recently signed a new contract at Chelsea. He said, “Do I want him to leave Chelsea? No. If he wants to leave, if he doesn’t want to work with me, if he doesn’t want to play for Chelsea, does Eden Hazard have a price? I think he has a price”.

Raheem Sterling has two years left on his current contract, which is worth £35,000 per week, and Mourinho admits he can understand why Brendan Rodgers and FSG aren’t keen to even consider letting the youngster go. “I also understand the philosophy of managers and clubs who want to keep the players at any price, who want just to say, ‘there is no price to sell – the player stays, whatever’. My philosophy is not better than that – it’s just different”, he said.

Whether Sterling stays at Liverpool for the foreseeable future or chooses to move on remains to be seen, but one thing seems certain: as long as things are up in the air Jose Mourinho and Chelsea will continue to monitor the situation in the hopes of swooping in should the chance present itself.

Jose Mourinho has confessed that he took a gamble when he brought Diego Costa on at half-time in the game against Stoke at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had led through an Eden Hazard penalty, but Charlie Adam scored a stunning goal from within his own half to equalise before the break. With the score 1-1 heading into the second half, the Chelsea manager decided to give Costa a run out in the hope of tipping the balance of the game into Chelsea’s favour.

Mourinho admitted earlier in the season that Costa couldn’t play more than 1 game in a week because of his previous hamstring problems. The injury flared up again when Chelsea played Hull just before the International break, and the Blues striker was forced to miss Spain’s games against Ukraine and the Netherlands.

With the game on a knife-edge, and Chelsea determined to keep pushing themselves on towards the title, Mourinho chose to gamble by replacing Oscar with Diego Costa, despite the forward being less than fully fit.

It was a gamble that backfired, with the Brazilian born Spanish international lasting just 10 minutes before limping off.

“If the result was 2-0 he wouldn’t play”, said Mourinho. “But I have to risk. My medical department had to risk… From all the scans two days ago, the muscle and image was completely clean”.

Having scored 19 goals since arriving from Atletico Madrid for £32 million in July last year, Costa has been an influential part of Chelsea’s title challenge. Now, with Costa likely to be out for at least 2 weeks, the pressure will fall on Loic Remy and Didier Drogba to help drag the Blues over the line for the title.

The striker will definitely miss games against QPR and Manchester United, with Chelsea still having to play Arsenal, Liverpool and a Leicester side that will scrapping with all their lives to avoid relegation.

Mourinho will be hoping that his squad has enough firepower left to keep themselves out of the grasp of Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, should Costa fail to come back from his injury with the same form he has displayed all season.

John Terry has signed a one-year extension to his current contract with Chelsea, which will keep him at the club until 2016.

The skipper’s previous contract was due to run out at the end of the season, but with JT being in inspired form this year it seemed like a no-brainer for the club to reward him with this extension.

Having already captained Chelsea to two titles in Mourinho’s first spell in charge at The Bridge, it seems likely that he’ll be adding a third to his list in May, making it four titles since joining the club in 1998. Terry has also won the Champion’s League, the Europa League, five FA Cups and three League Cups during his time with the Blues.

One of those League Cups came just weeks ago, when he captained Chelsea to a 2-0 win over local rivals Tottenham. Mourinho, talking about the contract extension, said, “I am happy that he completely deserves his new contract after a season where he has already played forty games…[The contract] is because John continues to perform. He is a top defender”.

Speaking to Chelsea TV the 34-year-old defender said, “Hopefully there is many more [trophies]…I am delighted to be here and hopefully there could be a few more years after this”.

It was feared that Terry’s best years were behind him when interim manager Rafa Benitez didn’t see him as a first choice defender during an injury hit season in 2012-2013. But since Mourinho returned to Chelsea in 2013 the Chelsea captain has re-found his form.

Having made 661 appearances so far for the Blues, the contract extension means Terry can start to set his sights on the all-time Chelsea appearance record currently held by Ron Harris. Harris played 795 games for the North London club, and Peter Bonetti sits in second place with 729 games under his belt.

Terry would undoubtedly deny that such a personal accolade would mean as much to him as winning more trophies with the club he joined as a 14 year old, but there’s little doubt it would still be a source of immense pride should he finish his career as Chelsea’s leading appearance holder.