By Paul Lagan at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea 3 v Newcastle Utd 2
Mykhailo Mudryk came off the bench and scored a sensational goal that gave the Blues a 3-2 lead against dour but proficient Newcastle United tonight, who could just about count themselves unlucky not to have gained a point.
The Blues remain in 11th place in the Premier League and while they have aspirations of making a late surge into the European qualifying slots, no one is putting any serious money on the prospect.
Goals from Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and the ‘Jimmy Greaves’ style effort of the Ukraine was just enough to see off Newcastle, who had equalised through Alexander Isak before substitute Jacob’s late thunderbolt made for a nervy final few minutes.
Mudryk’s zip into the penalty area, latching on to a Conor Gallagher pass, saw him firstly nutmeg Fabian Schar, before rounding goalkeeper Martin Dubravka and slotting home.
It was the sort of goal Greaves was famous for – for Chelsea and England.
It was Chelsea’s third and ultimately three-point giving goal.
The game started well for the Blues, but they lost their way, before counter-attacking their way to two more goals.
Well as goals go, this wasn’t a piledriver – more like a snail shot but on six minutes, Chelsea took the lead.
Cole Palmer hit the ball from the edge of the Newcastle penalty area.
It was slow, and low. But with a slight nudge on by Nicolas Jackson, the ball took a minor detour on it’s bizarre way to the back of Martin Dubravka’s net.
The goalkeeper might claim he was unsighted, but to be honest, even a one-legged man or woman, wearing gloves would and should have stopped the ball.
Fabian Schar, tried his luck on 14 minutes, but his 25-yarder ended up in row Z of the Matthew Harding Stand.
Newcastle then grew I to the game, and Chelsea started to revert to a bunch of introverts.
Couple that with misplaced passes, terrible ball control, and there was a recipe for Newcastle to capitalise on.
With two minutes on the clock remaining until half-time, the inevitable happened and the Blues, without really understanding what they were doing allowed Alexander Isak to snatch the ball at the left apex of the Chelsea penalty area.
One touch later and the ball as in the back of Djorde Petrovich net.
Jackson had the ball in the back of he net a minute later but rightly he was adjudged to be offside before slotting home the left footer – VAR agreed.
Raheem Sterling had the last effort of the half – a right-footer, on target but straight at Dubravka.
There were no changes by either side at half-time.
Miguel Almiron had the first chance after the restart – his left-footer forced and excellent tip over the crossbar save by Petrovic.
But the Blues gradually got themselves back in the game – they kept possession around the Newcastle area well.
On 58 minutes, Palmer took advantage of a narrow gap and smacked a daisy-cutter which arrowed between Dubravka and his near post to put the west Londoners’ 2-1 up.
Sterling should have killed the game off two minutes later when he ran free, he rounded the goalkeeper and let fly. But Dan Burn had got back on the line and he blocked the shot and cleared it to safety.
Sterling’s disappointing night ended when he was replaced by Mykhailo Mudryk on 71 minutes.
Petrovic was given a yellow card by referee John rooks for time-wasting and he was followed by Moises Caicedo on 73 minutes for a needless foul.
Against the run of play, counter-attacking Chelsea zipped clear on the left through Jackson.
He cut inside on the edge of the box, passed the ball to Gallagher, who showed great excellent vision to tap the ball o to in -running Mudryk. The Ukraine winger then nutmegged Schar, rounded Dubravka and slotted home to give the Blues a 3-1 lead on 76 minutes.
Palmer was replaced by Italian Cesare Casadei on with six minutes left on the clock.
As the clock tipped into the first of the six added minutes, substitute Jacob Murphy got a goal back for the visitors with a thunderous, and unstoppable 25-yard thunderbolt, that smashed in to the back of Petrovic’s net.
This set up a nervous final couple of minutes.
Teams: Chelsea: Petrovic, Gusto, Disasi, Chalobah, Cucurella, Enzo, Caicedo, Palmer, Gallagher, Sterling, Jackson
Subs: Sanchez, Silva, Mudryk, Noni, Chukwuemeka, Casadei, Washington, Gilchrist, Acheampong
Newcastle: Dubravka, Livramento, Schar, Botman, Burn, S Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock, Almiron, Isak, Gordon
Subs: Lascelles, Ritchie, Targett, Krafth, Karius, Murphy, Anderson, White, Miley
Referee: John Brooks
Related Stories
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A free country needs a free press, and the newspapers of our country are under significant financial pressure”.
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or, please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
Discussion about this post