Still in the running! Chelsea 0 – 2 Newcastle: match report

Posted on May 2nd, 2012 | 23 Comments |

Papiss Cisse scores vs Chelsea.
Cisse does it again, in style.
Newcastle United keep their Champions League – or, at least, 4th place – hopes alive after beating Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to go level on points with Spurs.

It was a sedate start to things at Stamford Bridge although Torres caused a bit of concern by standing shoulder to shoulder with our defence and taking care not to fall foul of the offside trap. In doing so, he managed to set Meireles up for a shot that went sky-high and then got away from our defenders to run into the box himself, but he was driven wide by the advancing Krul and the attack came to nothing.

Sedate it may have been but Tiote still managed to pick up a yellow card in under 4 minutes for clumsily bringing down Torres a few yards outside our box. Fortunately the resulting free kick was hit straight to Krul.

Our first meaningful attack came when Santon made a run up the left, cut inside and tried to take a shot, although it was blocked by the defender in front of him. Shortly after that Tiote seemed to be flirting with danger when he brought Ramires down but fortunately the ref just had a quite word with him.

Chelsea were nearly handed a goal in the 11th minute when a Torres cross from the right of our box appeared to be ‘left alone’ by three of our defenders as it rolled in front of them, allowing Sturridge to get a shot in at the far post, which went wide fortunately.

A minute later we had a chance ourselves when Ba back-headed a goal-kick into the path of Cisse who was in the box to the left of goal; Cisse tried to curl the shot across Cech into the far side of the goal bit it was soft and missed anyway. Then, a few minutes after that, Colo headed a free-kick from Benny across goal and dropped to Demba Ba. Ba had his back to goal at the time and tried the overhead kick but it went over the bar.

In the 19th minute Santon made a great run up the left, worked his way inside, passed it to Cisse in the box, slightly left of goal. Our number 9 made no mistake this time, took one touch to control the ball and placed his shot perfectly across the keeper into the far side of the net. 0-1.

Chelsea started to play with a little more urgency after the goal, although not immensely so. Ramires – who was offside, although not flagged as such – got on the end of a long cross in a dangerous position to the right of our goal but fortunately couldn’t connect cleanly with the ball. Chelsea had a decent 10 minutes after that with some good crosses and a few threatening corners but they couldn’t convert any of them into goals.

Eventually we took the initiative again and finished that half well. Benny made a run up the middle and set Cisse up for a shot that went straight to the keeper. Jonas made a rare (in current times) run up the left and looked to to be making progress until he was adjudged to have been fouled. Unfortunately Cabaye’s free kick after that wasn’t up to much. And finally, just before half-time, the second of two successive corners taken by Benny was played to Ba just at the front of the area and his shot ricocheted off the cross-bar.

It was a fairly even half in general although we were of course a goal to the good.

Half Time

Chelsea came back on with Mata in place of Sturridge and tried to attack from the off. Torres put in a decent cross early on and found someone (can’t remember who) in space but Tiote was in the area to block the shot. 5 minutes later, Mata found himself in space right in front of goal but fortunately he was flagged offside.

Tiote and Mikel then started a bit of a battle which Tiote was eventually to lose. It started when Tiote gave Mikel a Frank Cannon-style karate chop to the neck to put him out of action for a few minutes. Mikel struck back a couple of minutes later with an elbow to the back of Tiote’s head. This appeared to be pretty serious as Tiote was on the deck receiving treatment for 10 minutes before being stretchered off. Hope he’s okay. Raylor came on in his place whilst Chelsea brought on Drogba for Malouda.

Chelsea seemed to be applying some pressure around our box but they didn’t threaten too much. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see that we’d had 55% of the 2nd half possession up until the 72nd minute. Torres shot wide a few times and I had the feeling – thankfully – it wasn’t going to be his night.

The was a bit of fuss in the 73rd minute when an elbow in the back from Ivanovic laid out Cisse and Ba remonstrated enough with the Chelsea players to earn a telling off from the ref. I thought Ba had a bad game today – his passes were loose and he gave the ball away a lot and he was eventually substituted for Shola in the 74th minute.

Chelsea were still trying to apply pressure though and a they won a free kick against Raylor simply because it was a Wednesday, but Drogba hit it straight at Krul. Drogba had another free-kick after Shola handled the ball a few minutes later and he skied it way over the bar.

On 77 minutes Merieles went off for Frank Lampard and chelsea were still attacking in waves but not managing to make anything of it and on 86 minutes Benny was taken off in favour of Obertan.

Chelsea’s best chance of the game came in the 87th minute when John Terry got his head onto a corner and sent the ball at pace towards the top corner of our net. Fortunately Santon was on the goal line and headed it away.

The official them held up the board saying there’d be 10 minutes of extra time and I wondered if we’d manage to hold on. Krul got a yellow card for wasting time over a goal-kick and then all my worries dissipated after an amazing strike by Cisse in the 93rd minute. Santon took a throw-in up the left and Shola chested it down towards Cisse who was about 3 yards outside the box, well to the left of goal. Cisse struck it in what appeared to be an extremely casual manner bit it sailed past Cech – wiggling on route – and into the far side of the net. Amazing! 0-2.

That was game over obviously and it was just a matter of playing down the lengthy injury time. Mata managed a shot for Chelsea but, finally, in the 103rd minute, the ref blew the final whistle.

Chelsea weren’t at their best today but to be fair we looked a bit tired too. What they didn’t have though is a Cisse and he was – once again – the big difference between the two sides.

Chelsea v Newcastle United full match video, extended highlights and interviews.

Chelsea v Newcastle United match highlights.

Goals: Papiss Cisse (19, 90+4).

Teams

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Petr Cech; Jose Bosingwa, Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry (C), Ryan Bertrand, John Obi Mikel, Raul Meireles (Frank Lampard 78), Ramires, Florent Malouda (Didier Drogba 61), Daniel Sturridge (Juan Mata HT), Fernando Torres.

Subs: Ross Turnbull, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, Salomon Kalou, Didier Drogba.

Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul (G), James Perch, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Davide Santon, Cheick Tiote (Ryan Taylor 68), Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa (Gabriel Obertan 88), Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba (Shola Ameobi 75), Papiss Cisse.

Subs: Rob Elliot (G), Shane Ferguson, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux, Shola Ameobi.

Discipline

Yellow cards: Cheick Tiote (3), Yohan Cabaye (56), Tim Krul (90+1).
Red cards: None.

Stats

Possession: Chelsea 52% – 48% Newcastle.
Shots: Chelsea 17 – 12 Newcastle.
On Target: Chelsea 6 – 6 Newcastle.
Corners: Chelsea 4 – 4 Newcastle.
Fouls: Chelsea 9 – 5 Newcastle.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts


23 Responses

  1. Great match to watch for a Geordie. Had a mate supporting Chelsea at the game talking shite when Mata came on.

  2. Thought Tioté totally bossed their midfield before he went off. A great all round performance, did you see how knackered Jonas was in the last 15 minutes, looked like he was about to drop dead but he never gave up, still kept fighting….didn’t do a lot of great significance all game but what a worker. Cissé is unbelievable….haven’t jumped out of my chair and hit the ceiling like that for some time…..happy days. Thought we would get stuffed to be honest but full credit to Pardew for a tactical change in formation and a first win in the league down there for donkeys years. The pessimist in me still thinks we’ll finish 4th with Chelski winning the chumps league…sod’s law! Did anyone notice how quickly Drogba got up when he was fouled today? Must have heard us singing about him!

  3. Pardew has answered his critics and might i say might be up there for manager of the month / season i’m starting to believe in him more and more

  4. Do those stats look about right? Seems the lads gave a good account of themselves down in London today. Aside from the 3 points, what do you lot think of the performance? I didn’t get to see the match.

  5. It seemed quite obvious to me that Mikel had recieved instructions to whack Tiote at all costs and stop him playing. I really hop that Chelsea get stuffed in the CL final and don’t make the qualifiers for next season. Nasty little bunch of niggly waster if ever ther was one. Come on the Toon. Bring on the %hitteh.

  6. It was an absolute honour to witness Cisse’s amazing strikes first hand, in the flesh last night.
    What a truly great all round
    performance!
    Excellent!
    ;)

  7. I’d like to give respect to pardew and the lads but especially to James perch who in my opinion gives his all in every game played and was a over looked defensive genius today

  8. tyneside hooligan: Totally agree! Perch, Perhio, Perhinio or whatever fans like to call him, gives his all; ain’t looking to move on to any other club, and has been bloody marvellous whenever and wherever he has been called upon to serve the Toon.

  9. Phew !
    Enjoyed the game so much, just home after (quite a few libations) and a nice lunch.
    Like to admitt i was wrong in my original assesment, thinking Chelsea were the better side.
    We were in fact the better side of the first period, plus IMO when after taking an early lead, we appear to play with a certain confidence.
    The second half was a case of again, park the bus.
    And the second goal that ensured they were’ent about to leapfrog us into fifth place, was as all who saw it a extraordinary shot.
    Look we are just a few players short of a challenge for first place or a piece of silverware, lets hope we can bring in some decent recruits in the off season, and give the fans something to believe in.
    Howeeeey Newcaaaasile!

  10. Tripp says: “anybody care to venture so player ratings?”

    Well Tripp, I think we look at ten across the board and look to see if we need to shave the odd bit off here or there, but it will be slim pickings. Maybe our worst player on the night was HBA but he was still always a threat on the ball, just gave it away a tad too often and never got the chance to show what he is really capable of.

  11. PORCIE STREET
    Actually nah !
    Dont think Mikel had any instruction to hurt Tiote.
    However, if you were paying attention to the game, you would have realised it was only a retaliation for, Tiote laying a bit of body on Mikel
    These things happen, unfortunately, doubtfully as a result of instructions from the bench.
    Hey we got a great win to-day, an unexpected win, lets enjoy it!

  12. Paul in hollywood
    Are you serious, talking bout HBA ?
    Excuse me, did you actually watch the game, or do you have some kind of disability when it comes to evaluating players?
    HBA had a great game, the guy is a special player.
    But you find he gave the ball away too often ?
    Dont know what to say other than perhaps you would be better off watching the Angels or the Dodgers, cause you obviously dont get football.

  13. Paul frm the left coast
    Apart from the attention getting sliding tackle, Perch had a fairly quiet game.
    So lets not start making he guy into somekinda hero, he’s just OK, a fill in.

  14. Citeh don’t play with any width so we might have a chance on Sunday.

    Also, I know Pardew likes to play unchanged teams, but how about Perch as centre half? With two mobile short arses in the middle (Aguero + Tevez) I think Williamson might be a problem.

  15. Chuck man, you should spend more time on the West Coast… We’re a lot more chilled out. You win at Stamford Bridge on a night like tonight, everyone’s a bloody hero, but HBA just didn’t quite bring on the magic quite like he can. I guess you were too busy pouring yourself another Amstel or spilled it on the carpet to notice the odd time when he fluffed it a bit. Nothing serious, nothing to get too worked up about. And I’ve seen the Dodgers once, and once was one time too often. And lastly, Perch the filler-in is just the man for the job. Go ask your good friend Alan Pardew! All the best mate!

  16. The fact we’re debating so ardently about the lads is testament to hoe well they all played. I see no reason to label anyone below par. HBA did great job, while he might have given the ball away in one or two situations that’s the price you pay for his flair. His workrate was excellent and the lads covered well when he lost it without a hint of resentment aimed in his direction. Thats what the teams performance was all about, the team. They understand how to work with each other now. HBA might not have hit the exceptional heights he is capable of but Cisse did & HBA didn’t have a poor game. The weaker links in our chain held fast last night but we all are aware where the squad/first 11 needs strengthening. We need this side to stick together because they are achieving @ times more than the sum of some of their parts. This has included Pardiola who because of the exceptional talent he has had to draw upon & his ability to motivate them has been afforded the time to find out what works tactically for the side, and whatever the overall opinion fans hold of him I challenge you to argue he isn’t improving. This side are growing together and are capable of silverware if we can jeep them together, fit and add a slice of luck for good measure.

  17. Agree with Sammy J and Aristotle the whole is greater than the individual parts.

    I also agree that “Pardiola who because of the exceptional talent he has had to draw upon ….. has been afforded the time to find out what works tactically for the side”

    As I said earlier today let’s hope he is learning how to get the best out of a very talented bunch of players, half a dozen of whom would walk into any BPL side right now !