The excellent Thierry Ambrose finished off a rapier counter-attack with an emphatic left-foot finish ten minutes from time.
It was City’s second successive win over Chelsea at under-21 level and a richly deserved result following what was the perfect away performance.
Eagle eyed followers of the club at youth level would have studied Vieira’s teamsheet forensically to see which regulars were missing ahead of Wednesday’s Capital One Cup fourth round tie against Crystal Palace.
Manu Garcia and Brandon Barker were two notable absentees in a youthful-looking EDS line-up which included the free-scoring Lukas Nmecha, u18 regular Tosin Adarabioyo.
City and Chelsea have played out some heavyweight tussles at u18 and EDS level in recent years, with a seemingly endless run of title deciders, semi-finals and finals taking place between the teams.
The night’s hosts had certainly enjoyed the greater success in these recent meetings but, in the first meeting between the teams of 2015/16, there was an opportunity to check on City’s progress since the teams last faced off.
Both City and Chelsea had won just one of their opening Barclays U21 Premier League matches going into this clash – probably as a result of so many “senior” eligible players going out on loan across the continent.
Chelsea nearly broke the deadlock three minutes in when Tammy Abraham, scourge of City in the FA Youth Cup final last season, dribbled past Kean Bryan and rounded Ian Lawlor but the prolific forward lost his composure at the crucial moment and saw his shot come back off the post.
In an end-to-end opening ten minutes, Kongolo was next to go close to scoring when he met Celina’s corner with his head six yards out but Chelsea goalkeeper Brad Collins parried it away from harm at full stretch.
A feature of the opening 20 minutes was City’s pressing, with Vieira’s side not giving their hosts a second on the ball, snapping at heels and closing down angles for passes which forced mistakes from the Londoners.
It was from this all-action approach that the away side took the lead on 19 minutes when Charlie Colkett fouled Ambrose on the edge of the area after the Blues had won the ball back deep in opposition territory.
Just last season, City under-18s came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 against Chelsea at the same ground and this dramatic fightback was helped by a brilliant dinked free-kick by Celina.
At the other end of the ground this time, Bersant produced a near-identical set piece from 20 yards out to give his side a 1-0 lead.
Chelsea nearly matched City’s tit for tat through Charley Musonda’s free-kick five minutes later but Lawlor produced a fine save to keep City ahead, getting a strong palm to the arcing strike which looked destined for the top corner.
Like the first-team in the Manchester derby 24 hours previously, the EDS had shown that there is more to City than beautiful attacking football in the first half, limiting their Chelsea counterparts to little more than half chances with a solid, disciplined defensive display.
They would have been 2-0 up inside the first few minutes of the second half had it not been for a fine save from a powerful Ambrose strike by Collins in the Chelsea goal.
Lawlor came to City’s rescue on a couple of occasions in the following 15 minutes with two decent saves from awkward crosses into the box and there was time left for a real scare on 76 minutes when Musonda found the sidenetting after the City keeper had committed himself to Colkett’s cross into the area but that was as close as the hosts came to finding the leveller.
City nearly made it 2-0 on the break with ten minutes remaining but Ola Aina cleared off the line when it looked to all the world as though Ambrose had turned in Aaron Nemane’s pinpoint cross.
However, Ambrose left nothing to chance when he was played through by Celina two minutes later, drilling his shot past Collins clinically with his left foot to secure the three points.
2-0 was how it stayed giving the away side a satisfying and deserved victory which will provide plenty of confidence ahead of their next U21 Premier League game against Norwich at the Academy Stadium on 8 November.
