Newcastle defended well for most of today’s game and held Chelsea until the 76th minute and it was a poor penalty awarded for the Blues that broke the deadlock.
Fabian Schar got the ball in his tackle on Alonzo but the referee awarded a penalty – it could have gone either way – but it was an important goal with only 4 minutes to play.
And then substitute Joselu scored his second goal of the season in three games and it looked like we could get something out of the game.
But then we were so unlucky when an own goal by DeAndre Yedlin with just 3 minutes to play was the difference between the sides.
So a penalty and own goal is what we conceded today against a top side who have now won all their games.
DeAndre Yedlin deflects Alonso shot into the net
But the positives were that the four new players – Rondon, Schar, Fernandez, and Ki all made their starting debuts – and they looked good players.
We will see Newcastle play like this against the six top clubs and we will try to take some points from the games.
Against the other 14 clubs, we will see a more attacking Newcastle side.
As usual with a Newcastle side, our players were compact and organized, they concentrated 100% and in the end, we were unlucky not to get the point that Rafa at least wanted.
But with only 19% look for the critics – also called pundits – to get on the back of Rafa again – but they know about 10% of what the manager knows about football.
The shock before the game was that Rafa made 6 changes to the side that drew at Cardiff City last week.
Shelvey and Lascelles were injured – although the rumors before the game were that Jamaal was left out of the squad because he wouldn’t play on the right side of a three-man defense.
We hope this thing is nipped in the bud – the last thing we want is bad feelings between manager and captain.
Schar, Fernandez, and Clark were the center-backs with Yedlin and Dummett the wingbacks.
Local lad Paul Dummett was captain for the day.
And local lads Sean Longstaff, 20, and defender Jamie Sterry were named on the bench – so that was a good experience for them.
The Chelsea side was ridiculously expensive with their new goalkeeper Kepa Azzizabalaga costing £71.6M and our goalkeeper Martin Dubravka costing £3M.
That tells you everything about which club has spent the big money over the last 13 years or so.
Newcastle started this game trying to contain the Chelsea side with five at the back and they did well to hold the Blues in the first half.
It was the same tight play by Newcastle in the second half until the controversial penalty awarded to Chelsea after 76 minutes.
It looked over but then substitute Joselu scored after 83 minutes.
It was a great cross from Yedlinb from the right and another great header from the Spaniard to put Newcastle level.
It looked like we could get a creditable draw – but for the second home game running against a top-six side, we lost 2-1.
It was an own goal from DeAndre Yedlin that was the difference with the right back deflecting an Alonso shot into the net.
This was the first time in six of these home league fixtures that we have lost to Chelsea.
Newcastle tried to come back in the five minutes of stoppage time but we couldn’t do it.
What this showed is that we have a very decent defense and against lesser teams, we should be able to keep some clean sheets.
But it’s just one point from our first three league games and we are at Manchester City next Saturday and it will be more of the same from the Magpies.
17 comments so far
toonbrother
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:00 PM
Comment #1that was an eyesore of a match.
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:01 PM
Comment #2Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:00 PM
Comment #48
There is nothing wrong, with setting up to contain a team of Chelsea’s quality. It is sensible. But there does need to be more to it than just sitting so deep .
Today we were ultra negative. There needs to be more of a balance. Sitting so deep may give us a strong barrier in front of goal, but by not using the ball and trying to play more we also invite eve after wave of attack and more often than not the top sides will take there chances.
Under Sarri, Chelsea’s biggest weakness has been there defence. Once we went behind and had to go at them the cracks were there, and we got the goal.
I’m not asking Rafa to go gung-ho, but we could have offered more and potentially got something from it. We were unlucky with the goals, but when you sit so deep, for so much of the game and surrender possession then that often happens.
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:01 PM
Comment #3*wave after qave
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:02 PM
Comment #4What Lilongwe said!
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:03 PM
Comment #5Not sure what that wave after gave means though 😉
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:03 PM
Comment #6*qave
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:05 PM
Comment #7Haha, sorry Jesper…… if you take the first half of the correction and the second half of the initial mistake…….
I’d blame the phone, but I thing the Strongbow is more of the problem
Our Toon
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:07 PM
Comment #8LG spot on, 10% possession at home is an absolute disgrace, our only intention was to stifle, shocking tactics.
No one is asking to go gung no, we do need to have a balance between attacking and defending, today was a repeat of citeh game but without a point. Awful anti football which is expected from a pulis or a fat Sam type of manager……not rafa
catchy in norway
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:07 PM
Comment #9I think the pro Rafa fans miss the point, you want to win by any measure, well its hard to win when you only play football for 20 mins,
im not bothered that we lost today, i hoped for a point, due to the fact Like Pardew, Rafa loves to just sit tight against everyone, Rafa is 10 times better at it, but it all amounts to the same thing, ultra defensive football.
im more annoyed that we drop points against Cardiff and even against spurs at home, but i will bet against anyone that we set up the same (not players but style) against wolves, Hud, West H, fulham brighton southampton, at home or away.
we need a more offensive minded coach. he dosnt need to have won the champions league, as we are not trying to win that, we need someone who trusts his players to express themselves on the pitch..
Our Toon
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:09 PM
Comment #10Mitro has 3 for the season, our entire squad has 2 for the season……and that’s from joselu
Munster Mag
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:11 PM
Comment #11Interesting point catchy and I’m as frustrated as you. This season could get ugly fast. One thing though, chelsea are better at the moment than spurs who looked flat. I could put up with that away, but at home?
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:12 PM
Comment #12OT,
No player in the top 4 tiers has scored more league goals than Mitro since he made his Fulham debut back in February. Level with Salah on 15.
Still, for better or worse he is gone now, and hopefully we can start to give Rondon more help higher up the pitch.
manxpie
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:19 PM
Comment #13People keep saying the tactics were terrible we should have done more
With who? Seriously our best 3 players out aswell as lejuene
Wat different set up?
Look at the state of our squad ffs its shocking people say its the same as wat we beat chelsea last season truth is its closer to our championship team if not worse!!
jimiley
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:29 PM
Comment #14If you sit in the box for 80 minutes and just hoof the ball away and wait for the next attack then 9 times out of 10 you will lose. Its that simple.
You have to have an attacking threat. If the other team senses you are just hoping to clear the ball they will park their whole team in your half. Thats exactly what happened.
Cowardly and ultra defensive. Worthy of nothing.
Rafas tactics and he gave the team no outlet or attacking threat. Play defensively because the other team is better but have a threat as well on the break.
Rafas tactics stink. We can attack and we saw it in the last 10 minutes when Rafa changed tactics. We nearly stole a point. You get those pen decisions when you continually attack and funny enough you do not get them when you continually defend. You just get the same old fans saying the ref robbed us. It looked like a penalty to me at normal speed but not on replays. Some so called clever people are even saying its still a penalty. The ref cannot get it right all the time but I would rather be attacking all the time rather than defending. Event
ually you get a debatable call go for you or a deflection go in or the keeper drops it etc etc.
jimiley
Aug 26, 2018 at 7:36 PM
Comment #15Football is supposed to be entertaining. Watching your team cede 90 per cent possession at home and parking in the box for 90 minutes and then proving they can attack in the last 10 minutes when it is forced on them is not entertainment. All down to Rafas tactics.
Before you have a go at me ask yourselves: were you entertained by that home performance. The manager has a duty to get points firstly but also provide some entertainment.
Entertainment to my mind means being competitive.Offering a challenge. There was no challenge there only an acceptance of inferiority like a boxer hunkering down in the corner and covering up and being too scared to throw a punch.
Sav
Aug 26, 2018 at 9:13 PM
Comment #16To play on the break, you need players with pace and a goal threat. We had Murphy for pace – and he’s not all that quick. That’s it. Rafa’s hands have been tied by Mashley and this is what we have left. What we witnessed is years of under-investment manifested in a football team
Sav
Aug 26, 2018 at 9:14 PM
Comment #17Had we had Plea, it could have been a different story, but he was 2 million too expensive.