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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 the Toon’s 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, attacking 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 after their early opener.
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…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/03/11/chelsea-3-2-newcastle-toon-make-same-old-mistakes-against-bang-average-blues/
Author : Joshua Nichol
Publish date : 2024-03-11 22:14:52
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