Lewis Bate named PL2 Player of the Month for December
Academy midfielder Lewis Bate saw off fierce competition for the trophy and collects it this week for his Premier League 2 performances with Chelsea's development squad last month.
He was an England Under-17 international and made his youth team debut while still a schoolboy before featuring regularly between the sticks in 2016/17. That was his first campaign as a scholar and he played twice in the FA Youth Cup campaign, including in the final, as we won the competition for the fourth year in a row
In 2017/18, Cumming was the first-choice Youth Cup keeper, playing in all but one of our eight matches and conceding just twice. He made his development squad debut on the opening day of the season and featured regularly for Joe Edwards's older age groups, including the Under-19s as they went all the way to the UEFA Youth League final after his penalty shoot-out heroics against FC Porto in the semi-final.
In November 2018, the keeper signed a new contract until the end of 2020/21 as he established himself as our number one in the development squad. He also kept goal in each of our five Checkatrade Trophy outings, keeping clean sheets away at Swindon and Plymouth.