Newcastle vs Chelsea: 5 talking points

As we enter into Game week 7, Newcastle welcomes their favorite opponents Chelsea at St. James Park. This fixture has been full of events and surprises as Chelsea hasn’t manage to win a game at St James Park for last 3 seasons.

As expected Newcastle players were pumped up, showed intensity and were all over Chelsea, something that was missing in them. The Blues on the other hand were poor in the 1 half; played with a very slow tempo and were uninspiring in the way they went forward. As a result, Newcastle took lead in 1 half with a Perez strike, brilliant first touch though and doubled in 2 half through Wijnaldum’s glance across the goal into bottom corner from Perez’s corner. But the game was saved by the Super sub; Willian and Ramirez for the Champions as they both scored a goal each to ensure Chelsea doesn’t face defeat for the 4 time this season.

Here’s a 5 talking points of the Match.

For the Champions, Azpilicueta was their best on the pitch for whole 90 mins, he stuck to his task, prevented crosses, didn’t allow his men to run away and in 2 half he showed intensity going forward to help Chelsea keep the pressure on. While for Newcastle, Perez was arguably the best along with Mitrovic who gave constant problems to the Chelsea center-halves. Perez was always a threat with his quick feet and pace and scored a splendid goal from Anita’s long pass with a brilliant first touch giving no time to Zouma for recovering.

For the Blues, Pedro was one of the victims of poor performance syndrome, didn’t had a greatest of game and was short of ideas at times. The Spaniard was outplayed by the young right back who played on left, Mbabu. Pedro had a great chance when he ran behind the defense and received a wonderful pass from Fabregas but skied it horribly into the stands. For the Magpies, Colback, who picked up an injury while playing couldn’t really contribute to the game as he wanted though he showed great courage to continue but he had to be taken off in 2 half when waves of Chelsea attack started to emerge.

The tussle between Mitrovic and Chelsea center-halves was amazing to watch, as Mitrovic did well on few occasions to hold the ball. Mbabu vs Pedro was another great contest, where the youngster showed great character to keep the Chelsea supplies off track, as both Pedro and Ivanovic couldn’t get better of him. The highlight was the effect of substitution from Mourinho which really changed the direction of game in Chelsea’s favor as they managed to steal a point from it. Overall the game was full of individual contest to watch, and collectively made it an eventful match, as expected.

Chelsea played their regular 4-2-3-1 with Matic and Fabregas in the center and Terry again on the bench as it turns out Mou is happy to rest him while Newscastle played the same formation.
If Chelsea would have lost this match somehow, they would have lost  4 matches in their 1 7 games for the first time in top flight since 1964.
Newcastle has beaten Chelsea in four of their last seven Barclays League meetings.
Jose Mourinho has never won a game at St. James Park: 3L and 2D

Newcastle had played their best football against Chelsea and this performance must have lifted the player’s confidence and restored some faith in fans as Newcastle played like a team who works hard. If they can show the same spirit and intensity then surely they will be out of relegation zone whereas for Chelsea, their defense is still a big worry as they continue to make basic training ground errors. Going forward they look dull with no penetration at all, their performance of present doesn’t do justice to the quality they posses. But the good news for the West Londoners is that out of next 6 fixtures 4 of them are at home and if Chelsea can play even play little above half of their potential they could be back in hunt.