The score may read 3-2 but it absolutely flatters Newcastle United who were shocking again tonight, almost as poor as the Chelsea support.
Let's get the positives out of the way early, both of our goals were absolutely stunning. Alexander Isak's equaliser was a move of quality finished off with a shot of sheer class. Isak seemed to generate power out of nothing as he smacked a 20-yard effort around a Chelsea defender and into the bottom corner.
Then, as the clock ticked over into stoppage time, first-half substitute Jacob Murphy produced a wonder strike that I'm still not convinced even went in. From out of nowhere, Murphy hit a thunderous effort that went straight into the top corner but was hit with so much force it hit the net and came out again making it look on TV like it had come off one of the posts that holds the nets tight.
The other big positive was that Tino Livramento managed to walk off the pitch unscathed after being kicked from pillar to post all game. Tino once again didn't let the side down, in fact, in my eyes, he was by far the best player out there in black and white. He was forced to switch from right-back to left-back after Dan Burn went off injured but he never missed a step.
Newcastle lost Anthony Gordon fairly early on in the contest and now it looks like he will once again miss out on that elusive England call-up with Gareth Southgate in the stands likely casting an eye over him only to watch him limp off after 35 minutes, but he never looked like he was 100% from the off. Now we have to wait and see how serious an injury it is and whether he'll be fit for Manchester City at the weekend.
Dan Burn was also taken off injured, but honestly, we can't say that we minded too much about that one given his hand in Chelsea's first two goals.
Burn failed to stop the cross that led to Chelsea's opener, although there were several people to blame for that one given that Sven Botman made a clearance that he A) Didn't need to make and B) should have done better with. Martin Dubravka should have done better with the shot that was flicked in beyond him by Nicolas Jackson, but really, he should have picked up that cross that Botman cleared, but it didn't look like he gave his defender a shout.
It was a move that was christened as "standard left-side nonsense" by our very own Rich. Perfectly summed up.
The second goal also came from a Dan Burn masterpiece with an attempted clearance shanked out for a throw-in in our own half from which Chelsea scored via a Cole Palmer rocket which only added to the Sky Sports Palmerathon that was going on all night.
There was a moment of redemption for Burn shortly after Chelsea's second when Raheem Sterling found himself one-on-one with Dubravka who did well to slow him down but was ultimately rounded by the England forward but his shot was stopped on the line by the knee of Burn and hooked away by Botman.
An awkward fall after a shocking header was what brought Burn's night to an end with Emil Krafth taking his place and that's when Tino Livramento was moved to the left.
Chelsea brought on Mykhailo Mudryk who only seems to perform anywhere near his potential when it's against us, and sure enough, it wasn't long before he was on the scoresheet as the Newcastle defence activated hologram mode and allowed everything to go through them for the Ukrainian to slide in a nice finish to make it 3-1.
Even at 3-1 though, the atmosphere from the home sections of the crowd resembled that of a mid-fairway crowd at Augusta. Embarrassingly quiet support from the Chelsea fans, whereas the Toon Army rarely let up despite having paid to watch their side go to pieces like a dropped Lego Death Star.
Murphy's goal took the edge off slightly, but it was another bad night and another one that had us wishing this season would just come to a close. The constant injuries and the effect that they've had on us this season have just been too much to bear. You can point the finger at Eddie Howe or individual players such as Dan Burn all you like, but the bottom line is, without all those long-term injuries, our season would have looked a lot different.
That final whistle at Brentford in May will be like a mercy whistle unless something miraculous happens between now and then. I got a text near the end of this game saying we've made Chelsea look like Manchester City tonight which made me pose the question - if that's the case then who are we going to make City look like on Saturday? It's a scary thought.
Thankfully after that game, we get a bit of respite thanks to the international break.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |