The Blues host Leeds at Kingsmeadow tomorrow evening, with kick-off at 7pm on Friday 2 February.

Both sides have already secured qualification for the last 16 going into this game, which is Chelsea’s last of the group stage, and we need just a point to ensure we finish top of Group D whatever happens in Leeds’ game in hand.

However, while qualification may not hinge on the result, Chelsea against Leeds is always going to be a big game for lifelong Blues supporter and Under-21s head coach Mark Robinson, due to the longstanding rivalry between the two clubs.

‘It’s Leeds, so for me personally it’s a massive game,’ said Robinson. ‘For me Chelsea against Leeds is always a huge game. But we try to take that attitude no matter who the opposition is, what kind of game it is. It’s just about having that mentality of wanting to win every game and win it in a certain way, so nothing changes in that respect at all.

‘I do throw little things in here and there, to make sure the players know about the club’s history and the rivalries, which they find quite amusing. I might throw the odd video in now and again, like last season we were working on scooped passes in the final third so I dug out some Pat Nevin videos. There’s always room to look at the club’s past.’

It is the club’s future which is the priority for Robinson and his fellow Academy coaches, though, and with the pressure off of the result for this match on Friday evening, it is his squad’s individual development and the building of a winning mentality which is central to his plans.

‘We’re in a good vein of form now. We’ve only lost three of our last 17 games, we’ve won three in a row and we have won all five of our games in the PL Cup so far, so we want to keep that momentum going,’ he continued.

‘We just want to keep that consistency while giving players their own individual targets because we’ve got players coming back, like Jimi Tauriainen. So we want to make sure we keep that consistency in performance but at the same time give players their own targets to keep that individual development going.

‘If I’m honest, that individual focus is always the priority with me, the game is just the framework to bring out that individual focus, because fundamentally that’s what we’re here to do - develop professional footballers. So that’s always a priority for us, the individual focus, and the game just provides the place for them to work within that.'

So in some sense it is business as usual for Robinson and this team on Friday, although he does believe the circumstances of this game and our good run of recent form in the Premier League Cup and across all competitions highlights the need for building consistency at Under-21s level.

‘When both teams are already through it’s really important that we can see those consistent behaviours. It’s vital that we see that mentality, that there’s no drop off and they can go out and put in another good performance.

‘It was pleasing in the last game against Reading that it was a different kind of win, which we hadn’t really done before. We had to come from behind against a much more experienced team and show a different side to our game which we probably haven’t shown, hence why we’ve dropped points in the league. It was the first time we’ve had a real gritty win.

‘So we just want to see that consistency and we certainly don’t want to see any drop off. We want to see the same intensity and winning is a fantastic habit to get into.’

Where to watch the live stream

You can watch our Under-21s' Premier League Cup fixture against Leeds United 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.