FIFA 18 simulation: Chelsea at Newcastle United

FIFA 18 provides us with a unique preview of the match between Newcastle United and Chelsea this weekend.

Newcastle United will host Chelsea at St. James’ Park tomorrow for what should be an intense and entertaining match early in the season. Prior to the Magpies taking the pitch in real life, FIFA 18 gives us a potential preview of what could happen in Sunday’s clash.

The lineup and formation for Chelsea was a reflection of Maurizio Sarri’s selections last week, whereas Newcastle’s lineup was determined by our staff’s predictions for Sunday’s match. As a result, Newcastle played with a 4-2-3-1 formation and Chelsea played with a 4-3-3 setup. The following players started for both clubs:

Newcastle United

• Dubravka – Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett – Diame, Shelvey – Ritchie, Perez, Atsu – Rondon

Chelsea

• Arrizabalaga – Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso – Kante, Jorginho, Barkley – Pedro, Morata, Willian

First Half

Chelsea looked to dominate this match from the start as they maintained possession early on and worked Newcastle on the wings. Ten minutes into the match and Chelsea had already created two shot attempts – one shot going wide from the foot of Barkley and the other in the hands of Dubravka after Willian tried to score a weak header.

It took Newcastle 27 minutes to get settled in this affair as Shelvey constantly looked for Atsu on the wing to get the ball moving forward. Five minutes after becoming more active offensively, it was Atsu who threaded a perfect through-ball to Rondon only to see the frontman raise the ball over the bar.

That miss from Rondon would prove costly as Chelsea found the back of the net on a brilliant breakaway that was started by Willian and finished off by Morata’s grounded volley in the 43rd minute.

Half-time Score: Newcastle 0-1 Chelsea

Second Half

Newcastle were more lively to start the second half, but the Magpies’ energy did not slow down the Blues. Newcastle did well in recovering the ball and stringing together several passes, but Diame and Shelvey struggled with Chelsea’s pace in midfield.

The 56th minute of the match saw Chelsea win two consecutive corners and it was Morata who netted his second of the match to put the Blues up 2-0 at St. James’ Park. Newcastle failed to react to the two goal deficit as they only created two shot attempts in the entire second half.

Fortunately for Newcastle, their opponents took their foot off the gas pedal and focused more on defending their lead on the road. Overall, Chelsea outplayed Newcastle in almost every statistical category and won the match with ease.

In total, Chelsea maintained 60 percent of the possession and created nine shot attempts with five on target. Newcastle chased the ball with only 40 percent of the possession and they only had five shots in the match with one on target.