The Blues showed that the loss to Arsenal – our first in the league this year – was merely a bump in the road by bouncing straight back with an emphatic 7-1 victory away at Newcastle United in our last fixture.

Our Premier League 2 form has been made all the more impressive by the fact it has seemingly been unaffected by regular changes to the line-up, both to keep the squad fresh during a busy period and provide vital experience to younger players in our Academy.

The growing strength of our Under-21s was underlined in the victory over Newcastle, as the likes of Leo Castledine, Ronnie Stutter and Dylan Williams - who have been key players throughout the season - were joined on the score sheet by January signing Dujuan Richards’ first goal for the Blues and Diego Moreira netting on his return to the team following a loan at Lyon.

‘We haven’t had a big squad all season and there’s been lots of progression with the Under-18s stepping up, which has been fantastic,' said Under-21s head coach Mark Robinson.

‘But having the extra couple of lads come in, although Dujuan is still an Under-18 himself, gives us a more solid squad to work with on a daily basis.

‘So we’ll be looking to integrate those lads as well and get them up to speed. It was good to see them both score and it was also good to see what it meant to them as well.’

That is good news as our Under-21s look to maintain our recent form when we host Nottingham Forest in the PL2 at Kingsmeadow on Friday evening, with kick-off at 7pm, in our final match before a pause for the March international break.

With several of the players likely to be departing to link up with their national teams during that break, Robinson is eager to ensure another victory helps us return with no loss of momentum.

‘We certainly want to sign off with another good performance and win against Forest and then we go into the international break.

‘We still don’t know how many players will be going away for that, but it’s making sure they keep up those good habits and behaviours, and make sure that we come back ready to keep up the same form.

‘Our first game back will be the Premier League Cup quarter-final against Leeds, so we’ve got to make sure we get the training right and that the lads who do go away are doing what they need to do, so when we come back we keep the momentum going.’

Where to watch the live stream

You can watch our Under-21s' Premier League 2 fixture against Nottingham Forest live on the Official Chelsea App, complete with enhanced stats and event tracking from MVX, built by Infinite Athlete. It will be available globally and priced at £1.99.