Chelsea vs. Newcastle United: Rating the Toon Army Players at Stamford Bridge

In a critical game in the race for a top-four spot in the English Premier League, Newcastle United emerged victorious against Chelsea in arguably their most-important game of the season so far.

The win is Newcastle's first in the league over Chelsea for six years, and the significance of this victory cannot be understated.

Newcastle now find themselves fifth in the Premier League table, level on points with Spurs and only a single point behind Arsenal in third.

I'm going to take you through my ratings for the Toon Army in this big victory.

Goalkeeper: Tim Krul

Rating: 7/10

Thanks to the stout defence in front of him, Tim Krul had very little to do in this game, but when called upon to make a save, he did so with relative ease.

In fact, Krul had to make only two saves in the entire game, but a clean sheet is a clean sheet, so he still receives a solid score.

Krul is docked points, though, for his yellow card he received for wasting time—and that's not the first time this season that this has been a problem.

Left-Back: Davide Santon

Rating: 8/10

A huge off-the-line clearance near the end of the match provided the bulk of the reasoning for Davide Santon's high rating, but beyond that, he had an all-around solid performance.

The Chelsea attack was almost non-existent for a lot of this game, and Santon was a major reason why.

Even in attack, Santon was active for Newcastle, making a number of key crosses and passes from the back, including the assist for Papiss Cisse's first goal.

Centre-Back: Mike Williamson

Rating: 9/10

As far as I'm concerned, this was Mike Williamson's best performance in a Newcastle shirt, and at the very least, his best since their championship run.

Chelsea strikers Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba did very little all game long, and this was largely due to the performances of both Williamson and central defence partner Fabricio Coloccini.

Considering that Torres scored at the Nou Camp against Barcelona only a week ago, this really was a fantastic performance from Williamson to contribute to the clean sheet.

Centre-Back: Fabricio Coloccini (C)

Rating: 8/10

It was the sort of performance we've come to expect from Captain Colo, but that shouldn't take away from the brilliant defensive job he did alongside Mike Williamson in this game.

As always, he was the foundation of the defence; a reassuring figure for the more inexperienced defenders around him and a frightening figure for the opposition strikers.

Right-Back: James Perch

Rating: 9/10

Much like Mike Williamson, James Perch had one of his better games in a Newcastle shirt, though in his case he has been on form for the last month or so anyway.

There is no other player who puts in as much effort as James Perch does for Newcastle, and playing in his fourth different position this season, he was as productive as ever.

Left-Midfield: Jonas Gutierrez

Rating: 7/10

There was nothing particularly great about Jonas Gutierrez's performance in this match, but contributing to a win against great opposition for the full 90 minutes is worth something.

One thing Jonas did do well was draw fouls, earning three against a tough Chelsea defence.

Centre-Midfield: Cheik Tiote

Rating: 8/10

Normally as tough as nails in midfield for Newcastle, Cheik Tiote proved himself to be just that once again against Chelsea, going hard into each and every tackle.

It all came to an end, though, when he want off midway through the second half due to a head injury—an injury which stopped the game for a full 10 minutes.

Luckily for him and Newcastle, Tiote should be back for this weekend's game against Manchester City, despite the fact that he was taken off on a stretcher.

Centre-Midfield: Yohan Cabaye

Rating: 7.5/10

Probably Newcastle's unsung hero for the entire season, Cabaye once again had a quietly impressive performance in yesterday's game.

For the most part, Cabaye's passing and attacking play was on point, with his one blemish for the game being the yellow card he received for a slight push on Chelsea's Ramires.

Right-Midfield: Hatem Ben Arfa

Rating: 7/10

Hatem Ben Arfa didn't quite show the attacking flair he's shown over the last few months for Newcastle, which is typical of such an erratic player.

That said, Ben Arfa didn't do anything particularly wrong, but this was still a below-par performance from a player who has recently been compared to the likes of Lionel Messi.

Striker: Demba Ba

Rating: 7/10

Another scoreless game for Demba Ba, but that really doesn't matter for Newcastle, considering the form of his international teammate Papiss Cisse.

Ba did come close to scoring, though, hitting the bar with one of his four total shots in the game.

He was as selfless as ever in the win, which was a key contributing factor to yet another great performance from his strike partner.

Striker: Papiss Cisse

Rating: 10/10

In a great game for the 26-year-old striker, Papiss Cisse scored the best goal of the Premier League season, and in all honesty, we should probably be talking about Premier League history for this one.

Receiving the ball from Ameobi near the corner of the penalty area, the striker hit the ball towards the top-left corner with enough swerve to bring it all the way around to the bottom right, leaving Chelsea 'keeper Petr Cech clueless. 

And that was only the second of two great goals for Cisse. This really was one of the fantastic overall performances of the season, even for the high standards that Cisse has set over the last few weeks.

Cisse was even trending on Twitter worldwide following his performance and that goal, and that really speaks for itself. It's not often you see Newcastle players trending worldwide.

Substitutes

Ryan Taylor: 6.5/10

Ryan Taylor made a couple of mistakes once he came on for the injured Cheik Tiote, but his performance evened out as the game went on.

Shola Ameobi: 7.5/10

Brought on mainly to hold the ball up for Newcastle's other attackers, Ameobi did a perfect job in setting up Papiss Cisse for his physics-defying second goal.

Gabriel Obertan: 7/10

Used mainly as a more steady offensive presence than Hatem Ben Arfa, Obertan did a fine job in helping Newcastle cross the finish line.