Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea: Back on Track

My prediction was correct. Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-0 but was just that Newcastle’s legitimate goal was not allowed. First half was not very enjoyable but the second half was superb. Chelsea must have scored about half a dozen goals but most of the chances came after our second goal.

If Newcastle’s goal was allowed, it might have turned the proceedings. Newcastle had this fiery spell where, had they scored, they would have put a lot pressure on us. Thanks to some rare good fortune, we weren’t to be stretched towards the end.

I thought the first half was even. Though Chelsea were slightly better, Newcastle weren’t far away. The Shearer effect was there, but against a team of Chelsea’s quality, they were always going to find it difficult to sustain unless they scored.

The midfield consisting Lampard, Essien and Mikel instead of Ballack was very well balanced. Mikel and Lampard were just being themselves. Credit to Mikel for the way he clicks nine out of 10 times. And of course, Lampard was simply brilliant. I always wonder how he can come up with such performances in such a consistent basis. Truly an exceptional player!

A half time score of 0-0 was a bit worrying. But Chelsea had the possession and were creating chances, though the final ball was messy. Two players were lacklustre in the first half—Essien and Anelka. Essien was a bit off colour and did not quite settle in.

Anelka had a typical game. He had just one objective of finishing when he gets a chance. He missed a fairly easy one-on-one. That was unusual because you’d expect him to bury those in general. That’s how he’s scored about 15 goals this season. He had a small role to play in the first goal. Other than that, he couldn’t really produce any moments, couldn’t really help the team in any way. So that was my Anelka rant for today.

The first Chelsea goal was a goal of hard work. Chelsea pushed on and on and bullied the Newcastle defence to manufacture a goal out of nothing. Like he’s done a million times before, Lampard was in the right place at the right time and as always did the right thing too.

The second goal was from a Petr Cech goal kick which was received by Malouda, who exchanged a quick one-two with Lampard and made a deadly finish. I thought that it would be game over but Newcastle came back at us.

Chelsea were a bit shaky facing the pace and guile of both Martins and Owen. They scored but then Ashley Cole cleared it from behind the line. The goal was not given. That was Ashley Cole’s best moment of the match. He was otherwise poor today. Had he not cleared it, there might have been no doubt. By making a hopeless and unsuccessful clearance, he was successful in denying the goal.

Guus and I were watching the same match. So Essien and Anelka were subbed. On came Ballack and Di Santo. Ballack was fresh from a very good international break. That 25-yarder against Wales was a thing of beauty. Watch it again and again to see what a technically perfect shot that was. Today though, he missed a sitter. But he was otherwise good in the half hour he played.

The big difference today is that when Ballack was on the pitch, we were not trying to unlock a defence. We, in fact, had a lot of space to work and Ballack was quite useful in those circumstances.

You all know that I’m the founder of Di Santo fan club. I’ve become a big fan of this fella. Even when Anelka was in his goal-tapping peak, I was suggesting we try out Di Santo ahead of Anelka. I want to see him play for all 90 minutes in a Premier League match. Normally, he was only getting five or 10 minutes, mostly at the fag end. Today, he got about 30 minutes and I think he showed us what he can do.

His 30 minutes were way better than Anelka’s 60 minutes (my rant on Anelka never ends). He even made a couple of successful tackles. Franco must have scored a stunner but he was just wide. With someone like Franco as the lone striker, our options simply get multiplied. He is a fantastic young player that we must use much more than as a time-wasting substitution.

Guus said this about the match:

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"For us it was difficult to make a good game but we talked about playing our game and getting rid of the energy within Newcastle and the stands. The perfect scenario was to score in 10 or 15 minutes. Not having done that we must keep the pace and then you get the public more silent.

"We didn’t manage to score—what we did was keep the pace. Not scoring means if you keep up the pace they might get fatigued and we could score, which we did. We are happy to get three points and in the way we played for the good part of the game.

"Now we regret even more we lost our points against Spurs but nevertheless until it’s over we keep on fighting and we try to put the pressure on both who are on top of us at the moment. We will see what happens in this weekend. We have to keep on winning with home games now and keep the pressure on.

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A very good away win after a disappointing defeat against Spurs. As I write this, Liverpool are being held by Fulham. Man Utd are playing Villa tomorrow. So far, this weekend has been good. Go Vilham!