On the final weekend before 2022/23 begins in earnest, our development squad wrapped up their pre-season campaign with two fixtures on Saturday, away against Bromley and at home to Dorking Wanderers.

Mark Robinson’s group were split into two as some players were involved in the 1-1 draw away at National League side Bromley and others featured in the 4-0 win over Dorking.

Jude Soonsup-Bell scored the leveller at Bromley with a fine free-kick from just outside the box seven minutes from time, while Ben Elliott continued his good pre-season form by getting himself on the scoresheet against Dorking.

New head coach Robinson gave his thoughts on the team's final pre-season games before their first competitive fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers in Premier League 2 a week today.

'We decided to arrange two games as the group numbers had been big and we needed to get 90 minutes into the players before the season starts,' he told the official Chelsea website.

'It was an ideal test for both sides as we faced National League opposition. We have only lost one pre-season game in 90 minutes and more importantly we have no injuries, so we look forward to our first game of the season.'

Meanwhile, our youth team clocked up a few more miles as they travelled to Germany to participate in the Walther Bensemann Memorial Tournament, Ed Brand's boys ultimately coming out victorious winning the whole tournament without losing a game.

Following group-stage wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bayern Munich, our young Blues faced MKS Cracovia in the semi-final. We cruised to a 4-1 win against the Polish opposition in that as Harrison McMahon, Frankie Runham, Tyrique George and Chinonso Chibueze were on the scoresheet.

Brand’s side then took on and beat Bologna 3-1 in the final with McMahon, Reiss Alexander Russell-Denny and Runham were the scorers as our the boys won their first piece of silverware of the season. Runham finished the tournament as the highest goalscorer and George was named Player of the Tournament.

The Under-18s have one more pre-season game remaining against Leeds United away from home next Saturday before starting their league campaign against Arsenal on 13 August.

In other Academy news, goalkeeper Sami Tlemcani has signed a new contract, committing the Moroccan to the club until at least summer 2025...