Game On! Chelsea v Newcastle – No Tiote, Anita starts

Can Papiss repeat his wonder strikes?
Game two of the new Premier League season takes place this evening as we venture to London to face Chelsea less than 48 hours after playing in the searing Athens heat.

That is of course the problem with the Europa League, but it’s a problem that will have to be managed if we are try and replicate what we achieved last season.

I’m not talking in terms of the result at Stamford Bridge, although another 2-0 win would be very welcome indeed, but I mean generally. The Europa League can take it’s toll on a squad over the course of a season, but with nine changes made for the match and a whole host of key players left out of the squad altogether I’m hopeful that, at least for now anyway, the impact of trip will be minimal on our squad.

I guess we haven’t got long to find out just how fatigued our squad is but at this early juncture of the season I wouldn’t be overly pleased to hear it as an excuse for an awful performance should one transpire at Stamford Bridge this afternoon. Hopefully that won’t be the case anyway…

Enough waffle. Team news, as ever will be published below as and when it becomes available, and if you happen to stumble upon any streams of the match then please feel free to accidentally post a link to it in the comments section below.

Let’s do this.

Howay the lads!

Chelsea: Petr Cech; Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, David Luiz, Ashley Cole; John Obi Mikel, Raul Meireles; Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Ryan Bertrand; Fernando Torres

Subs: Ross Turnbull, Michael Essien, Oriol Romeu, Frank Lampard, Ramires, Oscar, Daniel Sturridge

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Vurnon Anita, Jonas Gutierrez; Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse

Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Sylvain Marveaux, Romain Amalfitano, Gabriel Obertan, Ryan Taylor.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

433 thoughts on “Game On! Chelsea v Newcastle – No Tiote, Anita starts

  1. munich ,If this display doesn’t get Jabbas wallet open I don’t know what will . Waddle must be watching a different game cause he says we are asking questions 😕

    Ba ,great shot that but no cigar 🙄

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  2. Well, that was an important 5 minutes for Newcastle. Raylor failed to put the cross in from a great position with 5 toon players in the box. Ba muffed an 80% chance…

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  3. Are me and Dave the only ones who have seen some positives then? We’ve had chances, quite a few of them. Chelsea haven’t really caused us many problems and at 2-0 down with five minutes to go we still haven’t given up.

    Please keep toasters away from baths this evening. Two games into the season is a bit too early to start topping yourself no 😕

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  4. just a pity the players couldn’t put as much effort in as the away support, imo theres only 1-2 players that could be pleased with their game

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  5. aye Toonsy, fair enuff, but we are certainly at a different level to chelsea imo.
    no real shock there i guess

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  6. A much better second half. A few decent chances there as well. I don’t think Chelsea have had much of a show this half.

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  7. MM – Why must you try and reverse everything just because I’m not overly pissed about losing to the EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS?

    No I don’t think we’ve played as well as we can, only an idiot would suggest that. What I don’t get is by me saying “there have been positives” translates into “I think we’ve played spiffing”

    Care to explain that one?

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  8. we have just been real sloppy our passing has been off, but I honestly think if we had of got a goal we would have had the left we needed .

    WTF do they get 4 mins from

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  9. Toonsy @ 231 I’m with you, mate. It hasn’t been all bad this half. In fact I’d say we’ve been the team this half. The worst thing is that it’s been a bit slow.

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  10. Going by how we played at the bridge last time out , this is a tame performance brought about because they have strengthened and we have not and we lost Tiote ,simples.

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  11. yes there have been positives – HBA – but its not wrong to point out the poor performances too. No good burying ya head in the sand.

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  12. Decent but just didn’t click, I think Ba behind cisse might be a better option than both of them up top together.

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  13. Kimtoon – Yes they’ve strengthened, but there is also such a thing as off days. Chelsea had one when we beat them last season with the help of two goals that Cisse will probably never ever score anything like again.

    Sometimes things go for you, sometimes they don’t. Tonight we had too many players off their game but it’s not the end of the world. As the commentator says, Chelsea have had over £1 billion spent on them in a decade. They are a quality team, but we still could have scored two or three goals with better finishing.

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  14. The decent bit was for that last attacking bit.

    Kim-I think it’s a bit about the formation too. Obviously they’ve brought in some great players, I just don’t get why we stick with 4-4-2, surely 4-3-3 got better out of Jonas, Cabaye, Cisse and Benny and probably Santon, and meant we relied less on creating things “down the wings” so Simmos lack of attacking play didn’t matter so much.

    Meh 😕 Just hope it’s not all to keep Ba happy like.

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  15. Villa next, so surely gotta be 3 points in the bag.
    :mrgreen:
    we will get better than this, no doubt.

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  16. Beardsleys Boots
    August 25, 2012 at 19:27

    “No good burying ya head in the sand.”

    Who is doing that like? Have you not seen the three or four times where I’ve said we’ve not been great and too many players have been ****?

    If you took your head out your **** and read things properly you might have seen that rather than trying to assume things your own way…

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  17. i am sorry but no spark and poor poor performance..
    The team is not in form at all.

    Really think something is wrong..
    The players didnt fight half of what they did last season.

    Pardew also seems to be frustrated and out of control
    yelling at Benny “pass. “pass”! But benny just kept trippin around and hold the ball way too much.

    But i have faith.. Still early days.

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  18. Lads I honestly believe we just needed a goal to spark us into life but that wasn’t to be I said I would be happy with a point because I didn’t really expect much else but I am disappointed that we didn’t have the spark because imo Chelski were there for the taking. I’m not to happy that we didn’t have anyone on the bench to come on and change things, even if Campbell was on the bench I would have put him on for Cisse because it was clear he wasn’t having a good day.

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  19. I still think Torres dived. There was contact, sure, but minimal, and then he threw himself down while dangling a foot out for more contact. Still, if it had happened to Ba I’d have been pissed if we didn’t get a penalty for it.

    We had a few reasonably good chances, but in general I think it wasn’t as good a performance as I’d want to see. It was a fairly poor game all round.

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  20. Definitely some positives from that. 2nd half we played well – thought Anita grew into the game – only his first Premier league start against European Champions. He will get better. Passing was also a lot better 2nd half – Cisse looked a bit jaded, Ben Arfa was lively and I think we will collect a lot of points once the Dembas start firing. Both could have scored in the 2nd half.
    Still need another striker and CB but this lot have spent £80 million this window and will be right up there challenging for the title IMO. Disappointed we lost be we were by no means mullered. If we play like that I think we can stuff Villa next Saturday

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  21. Dave – Exactly. That Cisse header that he fluffed, or that chance he had in the first half, or the one that Ba smashed straight at Cech… If anyone if those went in it’s a different game.

    That is my point, we weren’t at our best yet we still caused them problems.

    Obviously I can’t suggest that though as I’ll then be saying we played really well or will have my head in the sand 😕

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  22. Just playing devil advocate but does anyone think that the players would get a bit of a lift if we signed a couple of decent players ❓ ❓

    As I think it’s clear that the players were just lacking that wee bit of spark, and they do say seeing good players coming in gives you that spark

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  23. Beardsleys Boots
    August 25, 2012 at 19:36

    “whoops someone’s got their knicks in a twist.”

    Not especially, although I am heartened to see that people actually do read things fully sometimes…

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  24. Bris-he did dive but like you said there’s contact and essentially that becomes a foul. Players lose all class and respectability when they do it, but it was a pen imo 😕 Staying on your feet is no reward, esp when Torres would have missed a normal shot anyway 😛

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  25. have to agree, its not good having no striker on the bench.
    perhaps we should have gone 4-5-1 with either ba or cisse up front.
    easy in hind sight tho.

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  26. never mind, we looked good in spells, perhaps a little tired. Our forwards seemed to be off the pace a little, but chelsea just edged it with classier football.

    Anita showed promise after his early mistake.

    I hope Tiote is just injured and not being sold as some have suggested. we missed him today.

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  27. Dave – In my opinion they are professionals ad should act like that. They should try their best regardless of who they see coming in the door.

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  28. Toonsy @ 261 we lacked a wee bit of spark I said the whole game through 1 goal would have gave us that lift that we needed, we were poor and only 1 or 2 players had a good game but we wern’t ****.

    Ice I would drive him back 😉 I just think that the fans and players need a wee lift

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  29. get a bid in for Carroll, when games get a bit tight like this a game-changer like Carroll would be ideal, as long as we dont pay more than 12mil 😀

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  30. its a tad worrying tho that since the start of ACoN Ba and Cisse have not played well together.
    ok thats not strictly true but there’s something not quite right there.

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  31. we are not a top 4 side, but we dont need to be a mid table team either..

    Invest in some strength and we will have a fun season again.

    I cant understand why anybody can be satisfied with our total lack of ambition.

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  32. Judas would certainly do better with those Anita dinks into the box.
    Knock downs galore for Ba/Cisse to score. 😕
    I keep getting a feeling we haven’t heard the last of this saga

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  33. Did we ever have “spark” when we were 4-4-2 though? I mean seriously? I know we won matches, but more often than not it was flicks from Bestie/Shola to feed Ba, the odd wonder goal, or scrappy stuff in an opposition box (good old own goal was our second top scorer until Cisse came along 😉 )

    Just think we were so much better with that 4-3-3, our players weren’t all terrible but the majority didn’t do well, in part cause they had a bad game certainly but some are shackled by the formation…imo.

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  34. Newkie, I think you will see more 4-3-3 at home but 4-4-2 away.
    AP seems to think we can keep it tight like that.
    But I would prefer him to go 4-5-1 when away and win the midfield battle.

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  35. was talk on hear that toon had bid 14mil for him and l/pool were going to take it forgot who said it now from someone that used to work for santna sports

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  36. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND  DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    Cabaye and Anita never not got a grip.  😕

    Jonas provided nowt. 😕

    The front two never held it up.  😕

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  37. Beardo-I just don’t think 4-4-2 is tight. We’re generally always outnumbered in the middle, and if Tiote is out we’ve probably already lost it. Add in that HBA isn’t a defensive winger like Obertan was when we were winning in 4-4-2 then it just seems pointless.

    Unless we kept it the same formation and dropped Ba back more, but I dunno, we just seem to have them both up top.

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  38. We came up a better team today and were beat. I thought we did ok. We were not over ran by a club we have had a billion £ invested in them over last 10 years or so. At times we passed the ball well and kept decent possession but would agree we didn’t click up front. I thought Marv done well when he came on.

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  39. found it from CC

    dean sowerby ‏@deanosow
    “nufc have bid £14,000,000 for AC. Lfc expected to accept #nufc”
    This guy used to work for setanta apparantly…

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  40. We got beat by the team that will challenge the Manchester clubs this year. They have spent £80m this window. This is a much better Chelsea team than I have seen in years. No disgrace. Could have done better but early doors.

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  41. Thats it, Manc c have bought the league, Chelski have bought the Champions League. Where are we? plucky hopefuls, but I’d rather that than have an owner that spends what the club cannot make on its own. Sugar daddies.

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  42. Troy you touched on one of my main gripes 😉 Cabaye I fail to see what he adds to the team unless he is pushing forward and linking up play, otherwise I don’t see the difference between him and Perch sorry 😥 😳 . but then maybe Perch could take a better free kick or corner 😆
    As for Anita i’ll give him a bye ball as it was his 1st start in the prem and hopefully he will learn by that mistake.

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  43. I(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND  DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS).

    Wow! We could have done with Carroll today! ❗

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  44. We were never gonna win that game today IMO, Manure etc. probably wouldn’t have. Forget, its history. Villa at home (they are falling apart) is a game that we could and should win. I just want the players to focus on that now. These are the games that get you the points in the bag.

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  45. DJG-Ayup, and I wait in hope of some sort of justice from Uefa. Think it’ll be a long time coming tho 😆

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  46. I agree 100% with Troy’s view on the game.

    Cabaye looking really jaded.

    Anita looked shell shocked – though Torres’ dive into the foul was dirt.

    Jonas couldn’t push their line back as he usually does.

    Cisse and Ba were very poor at passing and holding up the ball – hopefully we will see more from them against Villa.

    Ryan Taylor and Marveaux did nothing when they came on.

    Perch looked like the best player in a Toon shirt when he came on.

    That said Chelsea were tough to break down, they took their chances and we squandered two or three great chances.

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  47. Prem @ 289 sorry but I don’t think Chelski played that well so I don’t really see the point ❓ it would be different if they completely out classed us but they didn’t so on the day they didn’t look like a team that will challenge for the top, and IMHO were there for the taking if we had that cutting edge .

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  48. ime not going to comment to much on the game only its the same every season it takes 6/7 games for every team to see which way the road is mapping out,but would love a couple of players in,suck it and see time imo 😐

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