Following our 2-1 victory against Real Sociedad at Kingsmeadow on Tuesday evening, Chelsea Under-21s will travel to the Proctor Cars Stadium on Friday evening to face Derby County in Premier League 2 action, aiming to build momentum and secure another strong result.
Samuels-Smith has been wearing blue since July 2023, joining our Under-21s team and quickly establishing himself as a solid defender.
Since the start of the 2024/25 season, the 18-year-old has made 17 appearances across all competitions, including the Premier League 2, the Premier League International Cup and EFL Trophy fixtures. He has consistently risen to the occasion and become an influential player under Under-21s head coach Filipe Coelho.
This week has been busy, with two games in four days. The Blues started strongly by defeating Spanish opponents Real Sociedad 2-1 in the Premier League International Cup on Tuesday evening, thanks to first-half goals from Harvey Vale and Deivid Washington, before the visitors got a late consolation. That was our second victory from three games in the continental competition.
'I thought it was a good challenge,' Samuels-Smith reflected. 'It’s a great experience playing against a team from another country as the side seems to bring a different style and tactics, and I thought we dealt with it and played well.
'It was good to have a comfortable lead in the early stages of the game and getting those two goals in the first half made us confident going into the second half. But we have learned in previous games the importance of making sure we still approach the game as we would at the start, no matter the scoreline.
'We needed to stay calm and avoid getting too comfortable, which I believe we managed to do throughout. Overall, we stuck together as a team and that’s how we got the win. With a busy week ahead it’s great to start off on the right foot, as it puts us in a strong position for our next fixture later this week.'
During his time at Chelsea, the England Under-19s international has had several opportunities to train with the men’s team across the road at Cobham, including this season.
In the 2023/24 campaign, Samuels-Smith was named on the bench against Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup in August. He later appeared on the bench three more times, twice in the FA Cup and once in the Premier League against Manchester City.
This season, our Under-21s have also had opportunities to play on bigger stages, competing against senior sides at men’s stadiums in the EFL Trophy Cup, where Chelsea faced teams from League One and League Two.
'Everyone knows Chelsea's Academy,' stated the defender. 'We see many of our players get opportunities, whether it’s with the men's team or on an international stage, which helps us with experience. Our team is filled with players who have had those opportunities and that makes our squad more ready to go out and fight, as we know we have the ability to do so.
'We also get the opportunity to train with the men’s team, which helps as we can understand more about the physical men’s game. Hopefully that will prepare us for our next steps in our journeys.'
Now, Samuels-Smith and the rest of our Under-21s team are shifting their focus to Premier League 2 action, having started the campaign with four wins, three losses and one draw. In our most recent game in this competition, we secured a 2-1 victory against Arsenal at Kingsmeadow.
We are familiar with our Friday night opponents, as our last fixture before the November international break was against the Rams in the Premier League Cup. Unfortunately, we suffered a frustrating 4-3 defeat - our first dropped points of the group stage - despite leading 3-1 at half-time.
'Looking ahead to the game against Derby, we've played them before and the result was disappointing. However, we now know exactly what we need to do and the right mindset to adopt moving forward.
'I don’t think we need to change how we approached the game last time, but we must focus on our maturity heading into this match. We know we have the ability to win and score against them. Now it’s about making sure we maintain the right mindset to keep our advantage. We know what we have to do and our roles.
'Hopefully, my defending will be solid and we can secure the three points along with a clean sheet to finish off a successful week.'