Newcastle fight hard, but fall to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Newcastle United played well on the road, but a curling strike from Willian sunk the visitors at Stamford Bridge.

As expected, Rafa Benitez deployed a defensive 5-4-1 formation against Chelsea, but a major surprise from the Spaniard was his decision to start Florian Lejeune and youngster Sean Longstaff. Chelsea lined up in a 4-3-3 formation and this attacking game plan was implemented in full force as Chelsea dominated the offensive action in this match. For more details, read the half-by-half analysis below.

First Half

It was a quiet first few minutes with both teams making simple, safe passes, but it only took Chelsea eight minutes to find the opening goal. Pedro ran past Ciaran Clark and chipped Martin Dubravka to give the home side the lead.

Newcastle were very slow to react after conceding the opening goal. DeAndre Yedlin was the only Magpie trying to create an attack by breaking free down the wing on two occasions, but despite his efforts Newcastle failed to take a single shot in the opening 20 minutes.

Chelsea continued to pile on the pressure as their back-line was pushed up to midfield and they continued to pass the ball around with ease. The Blues came close to scoring in the 24th minute, but a header from a close range free-kick just went over the bar. Two minutes later it was Newcastle that threatened Chelsea for the first time with a decent volley from Florian Lejeune, but the shot went straight to Kepa Arrizabalaga.

The 29th minute saw Christian Atsu pass the ball to Salomon Rondon outside the box, but tight defending threw the Venezuelan off a bit and his shot went wide. It took Newcastle some time, but the visitors gradually began to wake up at Stamford Bridge. Five minutes later it was Ayoze Perez who came so close to scoring the equalizer after a headed flick from Rondon landed right on his foot, but the shot went wide.

Then came the special moment the Toon Army was waiting for – the equalizer! A strong header from Clark off a corner kick went straight into the bottom corner making the score 1-1 right before the break. The Irishman made up for his early mistake with a big goal for his team on the road.

Second Half

Newcastle got off to a shaky start in the first two minutes of the second half with a poor pass in the back almost gifting Pedro with another goal and then Dubravka completely spilled the ball in the penalty area during a Chelsea corner.  The Magpies regained their composure, though, and they forced Chelsea to play more balls to their defenders.

Chelsea had a great chance to take the lead in the 55th minute when a low cross from Marcos Alonso went through everyone, but Pedro’s execution was too soft. One minute later, Chelsea took the lead through Willian as he curled in a strike from the edge of the box. Yedlin should have marked the Brazilian closer.

Newcastle did well to intercept several passes in midfield after conceding the second goal, but they failed to create any meaningful attacks and lost possession after stringing together two or three short passes. Benitez stood on the sideline motioning different movements for players, but his instructions were falling on deaf ears.

Benitez put Javier Manquillo and Jacob Murphy into the match to add more pace to his squad in the final ten minutes, but their contributions were minimal. Rondon came close to scoring from a  header in the 85th minute, but it lacked power and precision as it went into the side netting. Overall, Newcastle lost their confidence from the first half and did not react to the second goal with urgency.