Manchester City will be the visitors to the Bridge on Friday evening when our Under-18s walk out to play at our men’s stadium for the first time this season, bidding to be crowned as national champions at Under-18 level for the first time since 2018.

• Get your free ticket for Chelsea vs Manchester City in the Under-18 Premier League National Final at Stamford Bridge

That previous triumph was in the first year of the current format, where the season is divided into northern and southern leagues, with the two winners then going head-to-head for the national Premier League title.

That means we earned our place in the National Final by already lifting one trophy this season, for ending the league stage at the top of the Under-18 Premier League South table.

The Blues did so by a healthy 13-point margin over Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa in joint-second place, thanks in no small part to finishing the campaign with an impressive run of nine consecutive victories.

We began 2025/26 strongly too, going undefeated all the way through to the end of January by winning 10 of our first 13 games. Having dropped points in just three draws, by that time we already had a six-point lead at the top of the table.

We started with a confidence-boosting 4-2 win away at Crystal Palace, a side which had put a dent in our title hopes by beating us by the same scoreline in last term’s corresponding fixture. We then thrashed 2025 national champions Aston Villa 6-1 in our first home game at Cobham.

The big wins kept coming as we set the tone for a high-scoring season – we scored 88 goals across our 28 league games in total – most notably 4-1 against Brighton & Hove Albion and 5-1 away at Leicester City.

Our first loss finally arrived with a narrow 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in February and, although the Blues bounced straight back by beating Southampton 3-0 in the next game, our most challenging period of the season arrived.

In contrast to the form we had shown early on, back-to-back losses to Fulham and West Bromwich Albion at the beginning of March started a run of one win from four games, before we recovered and got our title charge back on track.

Once we had that brief wobble out of the way, Chelsea wouldn’t drop a single point for the remainder of the campaign. The season-ending run started at Reading and continued with another win over Palace, which took us back within one point of the top of the table with a game in hand.

We returned to top spot when we came back from conceding an early goal to beat West Ham United 4-2, and it was a position we would not relinquish for the remainder of the campaign.

With each victory, many of them by emphatic scorelines, we extended our lead at the top of the southern table, before concluding with a fitting 5-0 victory over Leicester which summed up the dominance we had demonstrated for long spells of the season.

Now, having won 21 of our 28 league fixtures to win the southern title, one more victory when Man City come to the Bridge at 7pm on Friday evening will see us crowned national champions.

Support the boys

Tickets are available here now for the Under-18 Premier League National Final against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. Season ticket holders (both men’s and women’s teams), members and under-20s are eligible for a free ticket until midday on matchday. General sale tickets are priced at £4 and on sale right up to kick-off.