Newcastle 2 Chelsea 2
A game of two halves. I know it’s kind of cliché to say but this really was a game of two halves, Newcastle were absolutely brilliant in the first half and really should have put the game to bed with Chelsea really struggling to get out and deal with the constant Newcastle pressure. Anthony Gordon in particular in the first half was terrorising Malo Gusto who really struggled throughout the game. Nick Woltemade grabbed the two goals for Newcastle making amends for last weeks disastrous own-goal against Sunderland, he probably should have had a first half hat-trick going agonizingly close to putting the game to bed. You did get the feeling that if Newcastle didn’t get the third goal Chelsea would make a game of it in the second half and that’s exactly what happened.
Chelsea were a completely different team in the second half. I thought Chelsea were pretty terrible in the first half and Newcastle let them of the hook not putting the game to bed, however I thought they were excellent in the second half and probably should have won in the end. In particular I thought Caicedo and Reece James were brilliant in the middle of the park and set Chelsea on a countless number of attacks that should have led to more in the end. The free-kick from Reece James to get Chelsea back in the game was exactly what Chelsea needed and what we’ve come to expect from the Chelsea captain dragging his team back into the game from out of nowhere.
Chelsea’s wingers cost them the win. When Joao Pedro scored the equaliser in 66th minute you got the feeling that Chelsea would go on to win with the momentum they had but they ended up squandering attack after attack with Neto and Garnacho giving the ball away time after time, I thought Garnacho in particular was horrendous up against Lewis Miley who isn’t even a right-back. You’d think that his confidence would be up after scoring two goal during the week but his end-product in this game was nothing short of shambolic and cost Chelsea the game in my opinion. Pedro Neto as well was similar in that he kept making the wrong decision on counter-attacks when it was 4 v 4 or 3 v 3, I’m suprised Enzo Maresca didn’t sub either of them off as I thought they were quite poor for the 90 minutes.
Newcastle again let a lead slip away. Whilst I thought Newcastle’s level dropped considerably in the second half they still had chances to get the third goal and in my opinion should have had a penalty for Chalobah clattering into Anthony Gordon in the box. Their best chance however came from counter-attack where Bruno Guimares whipped a cross to the back—post where Harvey Barnes was free but he didn’t make the right contact and hit it just wide by Sanchez’s post. It’s becoming an unwanted trend for Eddie Howe’s team were they fly out of the blocks at the start of matches but can’t maintain that level and drop off considerably in the second half letting teams back in, they did the same thing against Spurs a couple of weeks ago in a game they should have won. It now leaves Newcastle six points off the top 5 and Howe will be keen to stop this trend of dropping points from leading positions.
Where does this leave Chelsea? I said a few weeks ago after the Arsenal game that Chelsea were in a title race but they’re just too inconsistent to win the league this year, when they are at their best they can compete with any team in the league like we saw against Arsenal even with 10-men but that first half would really worry me if I was a Chelsea fan, they were outfought, lethargic and lost just about every second ball giving Newcastle attack after attack on the Chelsea goal. I’m not sure what the goal is for Enzo Marseca but you’d think they have to try and get some more silverware whether it’s an FA Cup or an unlikely Champions League Chelsea demand trophies and I wonder if this team is up for the task in those competitions.