A massive win for Newcastle United and the perfect respond to back-to-back defeats to Borussia Dortmund and Bournemouth, as Eddie Howe’s Mags battered Chelsea 4-1 at St James’ Park.
We were sharp in possession and so clinical when the chances came, as Alexander Isak, Jamaal Lascelles, Joelinton and Anthony Gordon all scoring to send us seven points clear of the Blues and closing the gap to Spurs, Aston Villa and Man Utd, who all play tomorrow.
Howe made two changes to the side that lost 2-0 at Bournemouth a fortnight ago, with Alexander Isak and Tino Livramento replacing the ineligible Lewis Hall and injured Sean Longstaff.
Joe Willock also missed out after aggregating an Achilles injury and the bench was pretty alarming, featuring three goalkeepers, a host of U21 talents, Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett. If anything summed up our ongoing injury crisis, it was that bench, with 12 senior players missing out.
The first half was largely positive but ultimately frustrating. We looked comfortably the better side and took the lead after Miley’s brilliant pass in behind found Isak, who finished emphatically. Chelsea’s equaliser through Raheem Sterling felt so harsh. It came from Lascelles poor giveaway and Trippier’s foul before Sterling struck his free-kick into the top corner, but there was minimal contact.
We finished the half strongly, yet couldn’t find that second as Joelinton headed a huge chance wide and Trippier clipped the bar with a free-kick of his own. Keep playing like that when attacking the Gallowgate and I felt sure we’d beat them – and we did, in style!
The second 45 was everything we love about this high-intensity Eddie Howe side and a complete and utter onslaught. Lascelles had some sloppy moments on the ball but made up for that with his header, Joelinton pounced on Thiago Silva’s error to smash home and the electric Gordon finished superbly to put the icing on the cake after he got Reece James sent off for a second yellow card.
Miley was superb and looked like a natural in midfield. He was up against £107m World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez, but the Argentine was outplayed. His touch, vision and composure was impressive for a player of his age and he got about the pitch well. Livramento looked so assured at left-back, Schar was superb yet again and nearly scored a stunner, Isak and Miggy were razor sharp on their return from injury and Pope made one big save to deny Fernandez’s near post effort back when the scores were level in the first half. His kicking was poor, but that was a key moment.
It was nice to see us conserve energy at the end against their 10 men and we also witnessed huge moments for Michael Ndiweni, Amadou Diallo and Alex Murphy, who all came on for their Premier League debuts late on.
Next up, a trip to PSG on Tuesday night before we take on Man Utd at St James’ Park a week tonight. GET IN!
(4-3-3): Pope – Trippier, Lascelles, Schar, Livramento – Miley, Guimaraes, Joelinton – Almiron, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: : Dubravka, Karius, Gillespie, Dummett, A Murphy, Ritchie, Diallo, Ndiweni, Parkinson.
WE ARE UNITED. ???? pic.twitter.com/FilTcoCD5O
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) November 25, 2023
Brilliant result. PSG up next
kimtoon(Quote)
Hopefully with a stronger bench
PremAndUp(Quote)
Unexpected but fantastic result against a club I do feel will be a competitor to nufc for Europe.
I was surprised at how cagey Chelsea were but that May have been a result of nufc’s energy and quality
Nufc looked a bit lost going into 1/2 time but they were brave and aggressive in the 2nd half and deserved the win. This team are just a joy to watch
Each goal felt special today from miley’s pass, to lascelles run and emphatic finish and joelinton smashing it home.
The pick for me was Gordon’s tho as he jinked and hit it in one movement. Gordon is such a smart, inventive and hard working player he’s hard not to enthuse over.
I never bought the doubts over him and his character as to me he was a young lad who made mistakes and was a bit snippy. He looks an absolute Star now and good for him
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
Prem, Willock has a recurrence of Achiles problem and Longstaff still not ready either according to Eddie.
kimtoon(Quote)
RIP Terry Venables, one of our better England managers.
kimtoon(Quote)
Icedog(Quote)