Chelsea crushed a poor Newcastle United side 5-1 at Stamford Bridge in Saturday’s late kick off.
The outgoing champions were on the front-foot from the start, and only needed five minutes to find the breakthrough. Willian played a lovely defence splitting pass to Diego Costa and the Spaniard managed to poke the ball home after finding space between Steven Taylor and Rob Elliot.
They doubled their lead six minutes later when a poor pass from Rolando Aarons was intercepted by Pedro, and the 28-year-old then calmly stroked the ball into the bottom corner. By 17 minutes it was 3-0, Cesc Fabregas squaring a beautifully weighted pass to Willian who finished it off.
After keeping the Blues contained for the rest of the half, it only got worse for Newcastle in the second period after Pedro got his second goal of the night on the hour mark, defeating Elliot in a one-on-one duel.
10 minutes before time the hosts made it five with Bernard Traore scoring his first ever Premier League goal when the young striker connected with a cross from Cesar Azpilicueta.
In injury time the Magpies pulled one back courtesy of Andros Townsend, who was one of the visitors’ better players on what was a night to forget for Steve McClaren’s side.
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Newcastle continue shocking away form
13 games played, two wins, one draw and 10 defeats. That is the away form of this Newcastle side and it explains why they are firmly entrenched in the relegation battle. It is not just the defeats that has fans up in arms, it is the manner in which they simply surrender. Comparing today’s performance to last weekend offers a clear contrast to the way the play at home in comparison with on the road. Against West Brom, they were attacking from the first whistle, and could have been a few goals up themselves in the first 10 minutes. Fast forward one week against Chelsea, they had no game play at all and the match was effectively over after 17 minutes. This has been the case too often this season, and it is high time the players realise that home wins alone will not be enough to stay up.
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How will Chelsea adapt midweek?
While it was Chelsea’s most dominating display of the season, they have no time to rest on their laurels as attention is now turned to their round of 16 tie with PSG in the Champions League midweek. One thing that is certain is, they will not be afforded the same kind of luxury that the Geordies gifted them. Perhaps the poor Newcastle performance will work against the Blues, because sometimes in the lead up to a big match you want a competitive hit out to prepare, which they certainly did not get last night. The way they alter their style in Paris will be fascinating to see.
Magpies have a long time to review this shambolic display
Being out of the FA Cup, the Geordies knew that today would be their last competitive outing for 18 days. Needless to say, a crushing 5-1 defeat is not a nice way to lead into this matchless spell. It does, however, offer Steve McClaren a very long time to debrief what went wrong, and set things right before the next match away at Stoke City in early March. Part of their preparation will include a camp in Spain for a few days, which will allow the players to partake in warm weather training, and also become more cohesive as a unit.
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