Newcastle 4 Chelsea 1
Eddie Howe is having to juggle his squad as they look to deal with a spate of injuries in the Newcastle camp. With Chelsea the visitors to St James’ Park, The Magpies needed a win to stay in touch of the teams above them in the Premier League.
Mauricio Pochettino was forced to watch the game from the stands, after receiving three yellow cards, so got to live the life of a Chelsea fan for the day. So far this season, that has all too often been like watching a close friend in a car accident.
Newcastle got off to the perfect start when Trippier whipped in a cross from the right and as the visitors failed to clear their lines, the ball was worked to Isaak in the box. The Swedish striker took one touch before slotting the ball past Sanchez in the Chelsea goal.
He was assisted by 17-year-old Lewis Miley, who became one of the youngest players to set up a goal in the Premier League. While Eddie Howe laments their injury crisis it does give the youngsters a chance to show their potential and Miley was doing just that.
Credit: @NUFC
As the hosts continued to press, The Blues countered on a rare occasion and a slight nudge in the back sent Sterling to ground just outside the box. It does not take much to send the attacker to the turf but Trippier was also shown a yellow card for his troubles.
Sterling stepped up to take the free-kick and sent his effort straight into the top corner with Pope rooted to the spot to punish Eddie Howe’s side. It was just the response Pochettino would have wanted to have seen from his side after going a goal down.
The Magpies had a huge chance to regain the lead after Thiago Silva forgot how legs worked as he gifted them a corner. Joelinton had a free header with the keeper on the ground but could not find the target as he headed wide of the goal.
Enzo Fernandez was the next player to have a sight of goal after James laid the ball off to him in the box but his effort clipped the outside of the post. The Argentine has struggled to find the back of the net since his big money signing for The Blues.
After Gordon was fouled outside the box, Trippier stepped up to take the set-piece and rattled the crossbar with his effort as Sanchez scrambled across his goal. There is no doubting the abilities of the Newcastle full-back when it comes to dead ball situations.
Chelsea seem capable of hitting the self-destruct button at will and must have left Pochettino tearing his hair out in the stands as both James and Sterling were booked in quick succession for kicking the ball away when free-kicks were given to the opposition.
Credit: @NUFC
Newcastle worked the resulting free-kick out wide to Gordon, who cut back onto his right foot, before clipping a cross into the box. Lascelles found himself unmarked in the centre of the goal and thundered his header past the despairing Chelsea keeper.
Thiago Silva was playing like he’d had a numbing agent injected into both legs before the game and gifted the ball to Joelinton to run through and making it two goals in 90 seconds for The Magpies as St James’ Park once again erupted in celebration.
Reece James then mis-controlled a pass from the keeper and pulled Gordon to the ground as he looked to run clear with the ball. The referee had no option but to show him a second yellow card, quickly followed by a red, not that Simon Hooper usually needs an invite.
Fabian Schar came running through the midfield, channelling his inner Kaka, but Sanchez was to make a fantastic one-handed save to keep the ball out of the goal. Newcastle could start to smell blood against ten-men Chelsea.
Gordon topped off a good performance as he sprung the offside trap to get onto a through ball, he checked inside and drilled his effort into the bottom corner. It put the icing on the cake for Eddie Howe’s Magpies as they convincingly beat a side that cost more to put together than the Large Hadron Collider.
It was a confidence-boosting win for The Magpies as they head to France to face PSG in a make-or-break Champions League game in the week. They will be hoping that Anthony Gordon can replicate his form from this game in Paris.
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