Newcastle missed the chance to move back to seventh in the league as they fell to defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Nicolas Jackson’s early goal against the run of play saw Chelsea take the lead before a brilliant Alexander Isak finish drew us level just before the break. In the second half, Cole Palmer and Mykhailo Mudryk extended Chelsea’s lead to two before Jacob Murphy scored an excellent, but ultimately futile consolation.
Many hoped to see us replicate the tactics that worked so well in our 3-0 win over Wolves last time out, but Eddie Howe opted for a high press, allowing Chelsea to get in behind our wide open midfield when we gave the ball away (which was quite regularly!) and get at our defence. That said, there were so many individual errors across the pitch, so it was bad night collectively against a bang average Chelsea side.
It continues our poor record at Stamford Bridge in the league – with our only win at the ground in Premier League history coming in 2012.
Newcastle came out of the blocks quickly, pressing a makeshift Blues backline who had not played together as a back four before this game.
But a poor clearance by Botman after six minutes gifted the opener to the hosts. After poor communication between Dubravka and the Dutchman, a hooked clearance saw the ball land at the feet of Cole Palmer on the edge of the box. His driven shot was flicked into the far corner by Jackson to stun Eddie Howe’s Mags.
That goal sucked any momentum out of the Toon and the game flipped on its head. Sadly, it’s so clear how brittle our confidence is right now, as we suddenly went back in our shells and struggled to get going again. Despite having more of the ball, we offered little going forward and failed to register a shot on target in the opening 30 minutes.
The effectiveness of our high press was also under scrutiny given the ease at which the Blues played round us at times. And the task became more difficult 10 minutes before the break when Gordon was unable to continue following treatment on his knee.
However, five minutes later, Isak got on the end of a clipped pass from Bruno and swept a lovely finish into the far corner past the Chelsea ‘keeper. A moment of real quality that was all too rare from a Newcastle perspective in the opening half, but meant that parity was restored at the break.
We hoped that would give us a boost heading into a huge second half, but it wasn’t long until we fell behind again. It was such a sloppy start to the final 45 and Palmer, who had gotten the best of Dan Burn so many times, struck the ball past Dubravka from outside the area in the 57th minute.
It was a tale of black and white backs to the wall for much of the second-half and the Blues could have had a third but for a Burn goalline clearance to deny Sterling. We had one or two promising moments, but any attacks of promise were soon spoilt by our poor final ball.
A stuttering performance from Howe’s side did not ever really seem to get out of second gear throughout the second half and were exposed frequently by Chelsea on the break.
A quick counter provided Chelsea’s third. Botman was turned easily and Mudryk combined with Gallagher before the Ukrainian winger left Schar for dead and rounded Dubravka to slot home.
The second-half was largely uninspired and consistency is becoming a real issue for Howe’s side this term. What happened to the Newcastle that kept Wolves at bay, protected our previously exposed back four, played with heart and penetration in transition? What happened to Howe s***house Mags that make it hard for opposition teams at both ends of the field?
There was a glimmer of hope late on as Murphy rolled a challenge and thumped home ahead of six minutes of added time. But, despite its brilliance, it was a rallying call too late for the Toon who left the capital with nothing and a feeling of back to square one.
The result means Newcastle head into the FA Cup quarter-final away to City having slumped to defeat against an average Chelsea team who are now just one point behind us with a game in hand.
Although we are still three points off a European place, the manner of this particular defeat will do little to calm the voices who have called the season a write-off.
Another performance with zero intensity. Isak isolated up front, midfield not there, defence all over the place & keeper – well the less said there the better.
We clawed our way back into the game just before HT & I thought we’d see us go after them – but I wonder if the players have stopped listening to Howe because they might as well have stayed in the dressing room at HT.
Worst away defence in the league – pathetic!!.
Has he taken us as far as he can??
Sharpy17(Quote)
Awful performance. Only one or two can hold their heads high after that. Tino was very good but one man cannot make a difference. He was my MotM. Murphy did ok and scored a great goal, as did Isak, but the defence, which was our strength last season, has been shaky to say the least. Dreadful last night. Midfield non existent. Longstaff may as well not have been on the pitch. I think this season is gone now. Mid table (if we’re lucky) mediocrity… we will be out the cup next week too I think, especially if we play like we did last night.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Not wishing to make any excuses for yet another stuttering performance, but I do think the defence is missing ‘Big Joe’ in front of it and ‘Pope’ behind it. Add to that Burns lack of pace and Botmans is just not there after his injury. This all impacts on the teams intensity and causes disjointed performances. Howe must change the system all together, or fix it with the players he has at his disposal. Not an easy ask!! At the moment we are depending on individual performances and not team performances More strain (injuries) on players and not good to watch.
nutmag(Quote)
Nutmag, got it spot on there I think.
kimtoon(Quote)
Nutmeg – I’ve heard and accept all of the excuse and also genuine reasons for our form this season – what I’ve not heard much of is accountability.
We know Burn has no pace, so why keep pairing him up against these speedy right wingers?!.
Before last night, Howe had Tino sat on the bench who could have played LB with Trips RB. Last night Tino could have went LB with Krafth RB.
If Howe wants Burn in the team for whatever reason, why has he not tried 3 CBs in light of all the injuries – he’s tried nothing different.
Miggy offers nothing to our attack. That’s not a personal dislike of the lad – our eyes & his stats show that – yet Howe keeps selecting him while leaving more affective players on the bench – Murphy is in far better form & has proven it – that’s not down to injuries.
Howe plays with Burn, Botman, Schar – we should be a real threat at set plays but between the 3, how many goals have any of those players scored from set plays?! That should absolutely be a source of goals for us!!.
Howe is making huge mistakes and it can’t keep getting excused as just injured players out.
And before I get entitlement thrown at me – Howe himself said his aim was to increase performances levels, so I am only holding him to account for the what he has said.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Mutmeg – he went some way to fixing it against Wolves by having the defence & midfielder sit deeper.
It meant we gave up possession but we were so much more solid defensively & were deadly on the counter – we looked better collectively and looked more like the team that had so much success last season.
Last night he switched it to play a high press & with a high defensive line – that’s why he brought Miggy back in because he runs for fun in that high press – closing down CBs & FBs as the opposition pass out from the back.
It failed and he seemed to send the players out in the 2nd half with the message of switching to that deeper lying play – they just didn’t seem to be able to make that change quick enough.
We obviously have weaknesses & vulnerabilities due to being weakened with players missing – what blows my mind is that Howe doesn’t change things to minimise them to exposure.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sorry mate, that should obviously say Nutmeg 🫢 (fat fingers 😂)
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy Its NUTMAG lol!
I try too keep away from ‘accountability’ it tends to become ‘blame game’ and ‘knee **** reaction’. etc. I have no doubt the players are accountable to Howe and he is accountable to the owners as it should be, and yes we can all voice our opinions as it should be.
I totally agree on Miggy and I believe Murphy is better all round and who knows? even better with game time.
This season has now gone down the’gurggler so time to experiment but if he does he will be blamed one way or another.
N/ewcastle U/pon T/yne Mag/pie (Hope this solves it)
nutmag(Quote)
Nutmag – sorry mate I can only assume the autocorrect kicked in the make it nutmeg 🤦🏼♂️ no disrespect meant at all mate I promise.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy No worries mate. By any other name a rose would smell as sweet LOL
nutmag(Quote)
We had a poor period last season just after the WC were we drew a lot of games & just couldn’t seem to score. I wasn’t bumping my gums through that period & was ‘defending’ Howe and the team because the performance levels were there.
The difference now is that not only are the performance levels not there now, they are that bad we are bottom an awful lot of the stats tables – some by a big margin as well.
Dare I say if it was Bruce turning out these stats there would be a lot more holding him to account.
Questions have to be asked how/why we can go from a solid defensive performance & cleansheet last week to conceding 3 of the sloppiest goals I’ve seen in a long time – different opponents I get it – but that’s the 8th time we’ve conceded 3 or more goals in a game this season.
Sharpy17(Quote)
If it helps I’m a big fan of nutmeg 🤷🏼♂️😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sky put a stats caption up last night that I captured to share & support what I’m saying because I know some think I’m overreacting.
The stats specifically relate to us with and without Pope so that’s how I’ll display the stats:
Goals conceded 14 (2nd) 34 (19th)
Clean sheets 6 (1st) 2 (15th)
Concede 3+ goals 1 (2nd) 8 (20th)
Shots faced PG 11.6 (4th) 16.6 (15th)
Save ratio 74% (3rd) 67% (11th)
Keeper sweeping 11 (3rd) 5 (17th)
I know on the face of it that suggests we are just missing Pope & the stats certainly support that Pope is the better keeper of the 2.
But the fact his replacement is facing more shots per game – and statistically a poorer keeper would be enough of a reason for Howe to try some drastic changes – even more so when you consider these are some of the worse stats in the league and over half the season – so not a knee **** reaction by any means.
You can expect and accept a bit of a drop off with the injuries we have & if it dropped from 2nd, 3rd, 4th to 9th, 10th or 11th I could accept that and say ride it out – but it’s such a huge drop off that it can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Just to clarify my entitlement comment earlier.
To me there’s a world of difference between what is being discussed here, ‘We should be doing a lot better’ to ‘It’s only a bottom six team, we should be beating them’. To me that is disrespectful as we have seen any premier league team have earned the right to be there and they do, admittedly rarely, beat the ‘big boys’.
The wife’s family are Man Utd fans and the entitled drivel they come up with is sickening and I would hate to see that developing amongst our fans.
So apologies Sharpy if I over-reacted earlier.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem – to be fair I used the word dominant & that’s not what I meant – I meant controlled.
The Wolves game was a perfect example in that they have more possession so we didn’t dominated the game – but we controlled in that there wasn’t may times I feared them scoring & of course we went on to win 3 nil.
That’s what I meant about playing against teams like Luton, Forest, Bmth – we weren’t controlling the games at all – in fact we looked rabbits in the headlights every time they attacked.
It’s not meant as any disrespect to those teams. But if we are wanting to be a top 6 team then we should have the knowledge & ability to control games – yes things can and will go wrong along the way.
It’s felt like this season Howe has tried to change us to a high pressing team and move away from the sitting a bit deeper counter team we were last season. The injuries have been a huge problem in that, but he’s kept trying to implement that new style of play & it just hasn’t worked. Wolves was more sit back & counter & it worked – and the players seemed to understand it better. It also gave Dubravka better protection.
We can see from the stats above that Dubravka isn’t a sweeper keeper but Howe keeps playing that high press & exposing him – he needs to switch back & revisit his change in the summer when he has the players to do it imo.
To that end, I agree that a keeper is really important in the summer if Howes game plan hinges on it.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I just feel that Dubravka is going to want more game time, Karius is off to his family in Italy and Gillespie has no place. So I think we need Pope, a young GK as number two and an academy player as cover.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem – Dubravka won’t have won many suitors after that Chelsea game 🤦🏼♂️.
I think those stats show Howe can play either counter attacking football or high press with Pope in goal, but not with any of the other keepers we have at the club – Howe would have to change how the 10 outfield players play to accommodate the keeper.
Whereas if you look at Liverpool for example, Alisson is out injured but there is little change or drop off with their young keeper in.
As much as it pains me to say it, Klopp has squad of players there with such synergy it probably only misses VVD when he’s out. Anybody else, including Mo has a perfectly competent back up.
Sharpy17(Quote)
That’s a few years off for us. I think we only have that in 2 positions at the moment. Assuming that Barnes improves his positioning, Tripps stays fit. I don’t include CF coz Callum’s off and I think we need three.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem – agreed mate, I think we’re along way off – but that should be the model we are looking at – the manager is a huge factor too – it’ll be interesting to see how they get on without Klopp. His ability to inspire every player going into that team.
I probably over extended my point with the Liverpool example.
My primary point was more how important the goalkeeper is with them losing Alisson & their backup being a competent replacement.
I put RWF & CF above GK as priority for the summer – and they are still up there, but that back up keeper has shot up my list of priorities.
We need to scout a young keeper as similar to Pope as possible – whether he’s a £1m or £20m keeper, he’s every bit as important as Pope himself.
Sharpy17(Quote)
We do not need to scout a new young goalkeeper or indeed pay any money out for one.
We have a very good goalkeeper in 19 year old Max Thompson who we recently brought back from loan at Northampton and gave him a new contract.
Sidekick(Quote)
I agree that Max Thompson should be given his chance alongside Pope. However, I still believe we need three keepers in the squad and so we do need to buy one assuming that both Dubravka and Karius leave.
PremAndUp(Quote)
It would seem Eddie Nketiah is surplus to requirements at Arsenal. If he’s available at a reasonable price I think he would be a good option – based on the fact I see Isak as our main CF so we have to find a balance with a forward who accepts he’s not gonna play every game.
For me that would likely rule out the likes of Solanke & Toney coz both play every game now & would want to be main man in their next move.
Nketiah would defo get more game time with us – I’m thinking he replaces Wilson & the game time he’s had.
Nketiah at £25m plus add ons would be a good purchase I reckon.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I don’t know anything about Max Thompson to be honest, but I’m all in favour of youth development and bringing players through.
My only question would be is 19 too young to depend on him if Pope is out for any length of time?!.
He may be the long term answer but I agree with Prem – we probably need a 3rd keeper, maybe mid 20s with a bit more experience.
Sharpy17(Quote)