Derby County Under-23s defender Festy Ebosele believes the Rams’ fighting mentality will be vital as they look to overcome Chelsea in the Premier League 2 – Division 1 on Saturday (12pm kick-off).


The Under-23s have had a relatively positive opening to the campaign, earning seven points from a possible 12, with their most recent game seeing them beat Leicester City 2-1 before the October international break.

Like the Rams, Chelsea have started the season strongly with three wins from four thus far, including 4-1 and 3-0 victories over Southampton and Arsenal respectively.

Despite this, full-back Ebosele is confident he and his team-mates have the quality required to get a positive result against the Blues.

Talking to RamsTV, he said: “It’s always a good game against Chelsea and they have some top, top players. We drew against them last year, but we deserved to win.

“The win against Leicester last week is definitely going to have our confidence up ahead of this game.”


Although he has been playing consistently for the Under-23s, Ebosele has spent much of the season training with the first-team.

On this, he said: “It’s gone really well. The quality is better, the intensity is up.

“I think I’ve done well so far; I just need to keep that up.”

Words: Jack Hasler