Newcastle United 1-1 Chelsea: 5 Reasons Why It Ended as a Draw
On a freezing, snowy Sunday afternoon up at St James' Park, Chelsea managed to stop the rot with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United.
Three straight losses were met with a point that takes the Blues up to second in the Premier League table, above Arsenal and just two points behind leaders Manchester United, who trounced Blackburn Rovers 7-1 on Saturday thanks to the Dimitar Berbatov show.
Whilst the result for Chelsea stopped a string of deleterious defeats, it also means the West London club have taken just four points from a possible 15. Hardly the stuff of champions.
And up in the north of England against robust, in-form opponents on a freezing cold day, Chelsea looked anything but champions.
Not that Newcastle were much better, deserving their draw and nothing more.
There are many reasons why the encounter between these two sides ended up a disappointing draw. Here's five of them.
Chelsea Pressure Leads to Newcastle Nothing
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Time and time again in the game, Newcastle United could not create anything in the final third of the pitch.
Quite frequently, Chieck Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, and Danny Guthrie would see long balls forward to Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi go nowhere near the intended target, often ending up out for a goal-kick or throw-in to Chelsea.
And that was because, amongst other things, the players on the ball for the Toon didn't have enough time to pick out decent options.
Playing higher and higher up the pitch as the match went on, Chelsea kept pressing Newcastle even in the home team's own half, making sure they had as little time on the ball as possible.
This meant Newcastle made less successful passes, conceded possession easier, and subsequently had much less shots on goal than the Blues.
Even attacking players for Chelsea, like Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka, closed down the Toon's full-backs, with left-back Jose Enrique even being rushed into some wayward passes.
A clever ploy by Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti to break up Newcastle's passing game at home, the Toon's best chances of scoring inevitably therefore came from set-pieces.
Snow Freezes Spectacle
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Following significant snowfall in Newcastle, it was always going to be a very chilly occasion at St James Park on Sunday.
And that was very much evident in the match, with snow pushed back to decorate the sidelines and clear the pitch, thanks to a lot of hard work from the groundsmen.
It was obvious the cold did get the better of the players at times, which was visible in the lack of forward movement shown from the usually more active Anelka and Malouda, and the more pacy Wayne Routledge and Jonas Gutierrez.
Of course, when the temperature is colder than usual, it's harder for players to perform. Their muscles get colder, vasoconstriction (meaning the blood vessels get narrower) takes place, and so less blood (and thus oxygen) is carried to those working muscles, all basically resulting in a less high tempo and full-on football match.
The lack of spark from Shola Ameobi, and the bigger impact made by 19-year old sensation Nile Ranger when he replaced the striker could easily be put down to the above reason also.
Ranger was able to warm-up on the sidelines and keep warm on the bench, while Ameobi was exposed to the cold on the pitch, and often spent parts of the game static with most action taking place in his team's own half.
Salomon Kalou might also want to blame the above reason for his shocking miss towards the end, although there's only a certain extent to which one can bend the truth.
No Newcastle Link Between Midfield and Attack
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If there's one man Newcastle United missed more than most on Sunday afternoon, it was Kevin Nolan.
With Nolan and Joey Barton ruled out, it was Danny Guthrie's turn to man the midfield along with Cheick Tiote.
Tiote did his job well, holding position in front of the back four and being the first real line of defence against the Chelsea attack. Guthrie, on the other hand, was too static in the middle of the park, being too far forward to make an impact defensively, and not advanced enough to create something attacking-wise.
The Toon have had a lot of success recently with Barton sitting back giving Nolan license to push forward and link-up with Andy Carroll, Shola Ameobi and the wingers, giving Newcastle central attacking options, as opposed to always taking the ball to the byline for crosses into the penalty area.
Against Chelsea, Newcastle found success on the wings at times, with Routledge especially putting some dangerous deliveries into the box just waiting to be tucked into the back of the net.
However, they needed more than that against a team who can attack and defend equally as well, with the two holding midfielders allowing full-backs Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole the chance to join the attack.
With Ameobi highly ineffective and Carroll heavily marked in the penalty area, Newcastle needed to attack in central areas of the pitch as well as out wide.
But with a big gap between the strikers and central midfielders, it was never going to happen. With Tiote providing defensive cover, it was up to Guthrie to take the occasional risk and push forward in midfield, linking up with the strikers and taking play well into the final third of the pitch, i.e. fulfil the Kevin Nolan role.
Clearly Guthrie didn't feel comfortable with that however, as he was always seeking to play the ball out wide, or long up the pitch for Carroll and Ameobi to chase, trying to stretch the Chelsea backline.
As was mentioned in the first slide, Chelsea's pressure-tactic meant Guthrie's plan evidently failed, meaning a lack of connection between midfield and attack, and proving that Nolan's absence really is felt at St James Park.
Nothing Direct From Chelsea
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For the lack of significant action Newcastle created attacking-wise, Chelsea weren't much better either.
Although they created more chances, were able to commit more men forward, dominated possession and appeared far more likely to score, it was clear towards the end of the match that a winning goal for the Blues just wasn't going to arrive.
Too often, when going forward, Chelsea dwelt on the ball and lacked that decisive killer pass to set a teammate through on goal.
Florent Malouda tried too hard at times to weave his way into the Newcastle penalty area, looking to round the full-back and pull the ball back across the box for Drogba or Anelka to slot home.
Quite often, a simple delivery into the area from the byline would've been the better option for the Frenchman, and for the attackers waiting to pounce on the Newcastle goal.
The lack of quick, direct passing from Chelsea, whilst almost being slightly reminiscent of Arsenal, allowed Newcastle to get players back, allow their defenders to mark the likes of Drogba and Kalou out of that particular attack, and ultimately meant a congested penalty area was created, giving little options for passing and shooting options.
The Goals
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Of course, the major reason for the result ending up 1-1 was the fact that both teams scored a goal each. Goals which easily could have been avoided.
A communication blunder from Petr Cech and Alex allowed Andy Carroll the chance to grab his seventh league goal and slot home the opener after six minutes.
This could've turned out differently (and much for the better from a Chelsea viewpoint) had Cech either shouted for the ball, or seen that Alex was already dealing with the ball and thus stayed by his line ready to clear the danger.
For his part, Alex could've left the ball for Cech to collect, which would've been the best option as Cech would have picked the ball up and had time to start a new attack instead of being rushed into a clearance.
Salomon Kalou slotted home the equaliser for Chelsea on the stroke of half-time, after Florent Malouda set him through on goal.
In this case, it was Jose Enrique who had the chance to stop the danger. If he had left Didier Drogba and went over to tackle Kalou, that could've allowed Toon goalkeeper Tim Krul to rush off his line and block the possible shot from Drogba, who would've received the inevitable pass from heavily marked Kalou.
