Chelsea were able to take a convincing step away from the relegation battle with a 5-1 thumping of Newcastle early this morning.
It did not take long for the Toon’s Stamford Bridge visit to turn into a nightmare, with a fired-up Diego Costa slipping the ball past Rob Elliot in the fourth minute. Steve McClaren’s side were still clearly trying to find their footing, but a short pass backward from Moussa Sissoko was pounced upon by Pedro, who drove forward and stuck sublimely into the bottom-corner to double the advantage soon after.
The clock had not even reached 20 minutes before things were put beyond doubt, with a hapless visiting backline leaving space for Costa to cruise into the box and setup Willian for a tap-in.
A completely different team when on the road, any real sting would be taken out of the Newcastle play with the halftime substitution of Georginio Wijnaldum in an attempt to stabilise the defence. It did little to help the Geordie cause, with Pedro adding a second from close-range and Bertrand Traore’s first top-flight goal making it five. New signing Andros Townsend opened his account for the Magpies in injury-time, but it was nowhere near enough to ease the severity of this beating.
POPULAR ARTICLES
EPL – Player Ratings – Everton 0 West Bromwich Albion 1
EPL – What We Learned – Norwich City 2 West Ham United 2
Will Gabriel Agbonlahor’s improved form mean survival for Aston Villa?
Chelsea
Thibaut Courtois -6.5: Very little was asked of the Belgian by the Newcastle attack, although he will be disappointed to be denied a clean sheet by Townsend’s last minute consolation goal.
Branislav Ivanovic – 5.5: Passing needed to be better from the back and failed to deliver anything into the box when overlapping on the wing. However, the lack of opposition threat gave him some much-needed freedom and confidence.
Gary Cahill – 6: A Comfortable and composed return to the starting lineup for Cahill, recorded a number of blocks and clearances with broke up any Geordie momentum.
John Terry – 5: Left the pitch in the closing stages of the first-half with what is suspected to be some muscle damage in his leg. Marshalled the line with expertise during his time in the game though.
Cesar Azpilicueta – 6.5: Only had minimal defensive duties to perform, but also created two attacking chances and delivered two crosses.
Nemanja Matic – 6.5: Solid in the tackle and passed with high accuracy around the middle of the pitch.
Cesc Fabregas – 7: The touch of magic was back around the Spaniard in this performance, assisting Pedro’s second with a beautiful long ball and providing numerous other passes that sliced the Newcastle defence apart.
Pedro – 8.5: The summer signing’s best performance since coming to Stamford Bride was highlighted by two picturesque goals. He may not have made the desired difference to the overall season, but Pedro will endear himself to the faithful with showings like these.
Willian – 8: Assisted the opening goal and put the game beyond doubt with his 17th minute tap-in to make it 3-0. Also created two other key chances as the Brazilian wrecked havoc among the Geordie backline.
Eden Hazard – 6.5: Did not see enough of the ball inside the 18-yard box, but the 2014-15 EPL player of the year is clearly regaining confidence after returning from injury.
Diego Costa – 8: The fiery striker is getting better with each passing week in 2016 and put Fabricio Coloccini to shame with his pace and power. Slid the ball around Rob Elliot to open the scoring just minutes in, then returning the favour with an assist for Willian soon after.
Substitutes
Baba Rahman – 7: The youngster had to battle with Townsend and Moussa Sissoko after replacing John Terry, yet stayed composed and kept the opposition threats to a minimum.
Bertrand Traore – 7: There was no pressure when Traore entered the field, providing the perfect platform to score a first Premier League goal and cap-off a wonderful outing for Chelsea.
Reuben Loftus-Cheek – N/A: Bolstered the defence for the last 10 minutes.
2 – Pedro has scored as many Premier League goals versus Newcastle today as he did in his previous 19 games combined (2). Buses.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 13, 2016
Newcastle United
Rob Elliot – 4.5: The fault could hardly be placed squarely upon the goalkeeper’s shoulders for every goal conceded, however, his distribution from the back was simply horrid.
Daryl Janmaat – 5: Was constantly under pressure against a furious Pedro, beaten to the ball from a poor back pass for the Spaniard’s second. Also mishit a number of passing coming out from the back.
Steven Taylor – 4.5: Never seemed to have an awareness of the opposition bodies around him and gave away cheap space close to the goal.
Fabricio Coloccini – 4: Was convincingly outmuscled by Costa around the 18-yard box, especially in the lead-up to the third goal
Rolando Aarons – 4: Put Chelsea’s second of the match on a platter for Pedro with a terrible back pass and was not enough of a physical presence at the back. Was especially lacking in the late stages.
Jonjo Shelvey – 5.5: Tried to get some attacks going through the middle of the pitch, but his teammates had seemingly crawled into a poorly-constructed defensive shell.
Chieck Tiote – 4.5: Was poor in the tackle and did little to stem the pressure coming from the Blues in the first half-hour particularly. Substituted on the 67th minute mark.
Moussa Sissoko – 6: Started the game brightly but quickly lost confidence as the Toon were given little chance to create flowing attacks.
Georginio Wijnaldum – 6: One of the brightest sparks for Newcastle coming through the middle and his substitution at halftime for Jack Colback was strange, yet indicative of the type of mindset Steve McClaren’s team adopts when on the road.
Andros Townsend – 6.5: His crosses throughout the game lacked accuracy, yet he did force an early save from Courtois and netted a classy, albeit consolation goal for the Magpies in stoppage-time.
Aleksandar Mitrovic – 5: Was never going to be able to make an attacking impact with the amount of the ball Newcastle saw in the final-third and was substituted in the 70th.
[interaction id=”56c01845e55f8d3b22dbef75″]
Substitutes
Jack Colback – 5.5: Provided some stability in the defence, yet did nothing to really add to the second-half attack for Newcastle.
Jamaal Lascelles – 6: Replaced Titote late on and looked better when passing, also only had a handful of touches.
Seydou Doumbla – 5: There was little more that Newcastle could do to try and break through the Stamford Bridge wall when he was introduced for the last 20 minutes.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
