The 143rd Premier League clash between Newcastle United and Chelsea FC was won 4-1 by the Magpies. The Blues were unable to counter a double strike after around an hour
Before the international break, Newcastle suffered a 2-0 defeat against Bournemouth. In comparison, coach Eddie Howe made changes to three positions. Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Livramento started in place of Hall, Willock and Longstaff.
The visitors from London have recently performed well against top teams. The Blues emerged unbeaten from their games against Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City, picking up five points in the process. After the wild 4-4 draw against City, Mauricio Pochettino started Oguchukwu and Badiashile in place of Caicedo and Disasi.
Both teams were straight into the game. The defenders had to be wide awake immediately and they were, with Badiashile denying Isak after a nice chip (4th) and Schär stopping Palmer’s lob to the incoming Cucurella (8th).
Isak finishes off Miley’s pass, Sterling quickly finishes
After a nice combination via Gordon and Joelinton, Miley got to the ball in a central position. The 17-year-old lifted his head and found Isak, who moved well between his defenders. The Swede took the ball with him and slotted it home to take the lead (13′). Ten minutes later, Sterling was played clear and headed towards goal at great speed, missing the pass to Palmer, who was in a better position at the time, but he was awarded a free-kick following Trippier’s tactical foul. Sterling took the ball himself and converted it beautifully, Pope could only look behind him (23′).
The game did not lose momentum after the two goals. Joelinton had the direct answer after a corner, from which Sanchez stumbled as he came out, but put the ball next to the empty goal (25′). At the other end, Pope defused a long-range shot from Fernandez (31). Trippier proved that Sterling was not the only one capable of taking dangerous free-kicks when he hit the crossbar from a half-left position (42′).
Lascelles and Joelinton restore the lead
There was little sign of the tempo that dominated the first half in the second half. After exactly one hour, Newcastle dispensed with the standard Trippier threat and played a free-kick short. The ball traveled from right to left via Joelinton to Gordon, who found the head of Lascelles with a soft cross. The central defender headed against the run of Sanchez to restore the lead (60′). Less than a minute later, Newcastle went one better through Joelinton, the Brazilian winning the ball from his compatriot Thiago Silva and placing it safely in the net (61′).
Gordon lets James fly and scores the final goal
Once again, it was an individual mistake by the Blues that finally tipped the game in the Magpies’ favor. Sanchez made a sharp pass to James, who had already been cautioned after preventing a quickly taken free-kick (55′), and the ball bounced off his foot – just as it had done to Silva at 3:1. This time Gordon was quicker to the ball, James grabbed the 22-year-old’s body, brought him down and was sent off with a yellow card (73′). A potential comeback for the Blues was now almost impossible without their captain.
With the two-goal lead behind them, Newcastle left nothing to chance, Chelsea hardly made any offensive advances with ten men and the hosts went one better. Almiron, who had an eye-catching game, released Gordon with a long ball, who moved into the six-yard box at speed and slotted the ball past Badiashile into the far corner (82′). After that, the game was finally over. Newcastle, ready for Tuesday’s Champions League tie against PSG (9pm), celebrated their fifth home league win in a row
Chelsea, on the other hand, suffered a setback after their recent good performances and will be without Cucurella, another full-back, as well as James for their home game against Brighton next Sunday (3pm). The Spaniard picked up his fifth yellow card of the season.
