Currently on a run of six wins from our last seven games in the Under-18 Premier League, including four consecutive victories, Chelsea's busy Academy schedule continues with an opportunity to close the gap to the top of the southern table.

Brighton are the visitors to Cobham at 1pm on Wednesday afternoon, in a match you can watch live on the Official Chelsea App, as we look to make use of the first of our four games in hand over leaders West Ham United, who are currently six points ahead.

However, Under-18s head coach Hassan Sulaiman knows he also needs to consider the workload on his players as the matches continue to come thick and fast, with this fixture coming soon after Saturday's win away at Crystal Palace and another home game against Reading to come this weekend.

‘We need to find another way to freshen up the starting line-up again,' said Sulaiman. 'We’ve got three games in eight days and, if you include the Man City game last week in the Under-17 Premier League Cup, some of the boys already played two games in five days last week.

'So it’s going to be a big ask again. We have to freshen up the squad, ensure it’s competitive and we’ll try our best to achieve a positive result in both of the upcoming games this week.’

That desire to keep his players fresh and rotate contributed to three players from the younger age groups starting our last match against Palace, two making their full debut for our Under-18s, and Sulaiman hinted he wouldn't hesitate to give more youngsters an opportunity going forward.

‘They’re all talented boys and we’ve got more of them, it’s not just those three. There are more players we’d love to give even more exposure to football at this level, but it’s just about finding the right balance in the team and seeing whether it is the right game for them.

‘There are also older players who are equally as good and deserve to play, so it’s always a balance of trying to rotate the squad and give the younger players the exposure that they need for their development.’

Sulaiman and his staff seem to have been finding that balance well so far. The Under-18s have dropped just two points in the league since Christmas, despite frequent changes to the personnel on the pitch during that period, as the consistent approach throughout our Academy allows players to step between age groups seamlessly.

‘We always keep driving the competitiveness of training. We want it to be competitive and we do believe that winning is a part of development, so we’ll continue to drive that winning mentality and those behaviours in training while hoping it continues to rub off in the games.

‘That’s no different to the Under-16s when they’re playing and training within their age group as well, it’s the same mentality. That’s always been the DNA of our Academy, so it should be nothing new to these boys or to anyone who knows this Academy.’

No matter which players are named in the line-up when the Blues host Brighton at Cobham on Wednesday, they will no doubt be keen to reduce the gap to the top of the table to three points in the first of our four remaining games in hand.

For Sulaiman, though, it is just another match, with every game between now and the end of the season potentially crucial for the title race.

‘I guess it does serve as extra motivation that it’s one of our games in hand, but our ambition for every game is the same.

'So regardless of whether it’s a game in hand or not, we will continue to approach every game with the same mindset.’

Where to watch the live stream

You can watch our Under-18 Premier League fixture against Brighton 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.