Beating Newcastle is no mean feat these days, and Chelsea returned to something like their fluent best in becoming the first team to win on Tyneside this season. Their defence stood solid against some enterprising home attacks, with Oriol Romeu looking assured in front of the back four, and Daniel Sturridge, Juan Mata and Ramires all showed speed of thought as well as movement. Newcastle were unhappy with a couple of refereeing decisions, and had a right to be, though there was no denying that with slightly calmer finishing Chelsea could have had another goal or two.
Controversy arrived as early as the fifth minute when Peter Lovenkrands split the Chelsea defence with an alert through ball and Demba Ba stole a march on David Luiz, obliging the Brazilian defender to haul him down on the edge of the area. It could only be regarded as a professional foul, Willie Young could hardly have acted more cynically. David Luiz was the last defender and as Ba was about to stride into an empty penalty area it was clearly a goalscoring opportunity, yet to the disgust of the home crowd the referee, Mike Dean, produced a lenient yellow card. What going down to 10 men so early would have done for Chelsea's fragile confidence can only be guessed at, but the referee spared them that. Dean was not spared from Alan Pardew making his feeling known at the earliest opportunity.
So the Newcastle fans were not best pleased when Dean awarded Chelsea a penalty seven minutes later, though there could be little argument that Yohan Cabaye had fouled Sturridge after the forward had sprinted easily past Ryan Taylor and into the area. Tim Krul dived to his left to make a fine stop from Frank Lampard's effort from the spot, though when the goalkeeper was called upon again to tip a fierce Sturridge shot on to his post from Chelsea's next attack it was clear that the visitors had the pace to cause Newcastle problems and that Ryan Taylor in particular was in for a busy afternoon.
Sturridge was breaking clear almost at will by the mid-point of the first half, and should have put his side ahead from a couple of decent shooting opportunities instead of finding Krul's arms and then the side-netting. It was not quite all Chelsea though, Petr Cech had to make a sharp save to deny Ba when Lovenkrands crossed from the left. Then after Mata had bamboozled Danny Simpson with the deftest of flicks to set up a chance for Didier Drogba, it was Newcastle's turn to hit the woodwork when following a patient build-up Ba headed Danny Guthrie's cross against a post.
All a lively game needed was a goal, and it duly arrived seven minutes before the interval in a slightly contentious manner. The referee awarded Chelsea a throw near the corner flag when Branislav Ivanovic's cross seemed to have flown straight into touch, Dean indicating by gesture to puzzled Newcastle players that the ball had come off Ryan Taylor's forehead. Evidently too aggrieved to take up their defensive positions properly, Newcastle's markers simply watched as Mata collected Ashley Cole's throw to cross for Drogba to beat Krul with a free header.
Newcastle's hopes of getting back into the game seemed to recede when Fabricio Coloccini withdrew before the interval and Hatem ben Arfa failed to appear for the second half, though both sides came close to scoring in the ultimate end to end move in the 55th minute. First Drogba crashed a header against his own crossbar in attempting to prevent Ba reaching a Cabaye corner, then straight from the rebound Mata sent Sturridge racing clear to put Ramires one on one with Krul, only for the goalkeeper to keep out a slightly hesitant finish.
The nearest thing to an equaliser came when Sammy Ameobi beat Cech but found John Terry standing on the line as backstop, and the moment most deserving of one arrived 10 minutes from time when Shola Ameobi took Simpson's pass and hit a terrific shot against the bar from the edge of the area.
If Newcastle were unlucky, Sturridge should have killed the contest six minutes from the end when Raul Meireles and Salomon Kalou left him with only Krul to beat. Once again the goalkeeper stood up to him.
Krul must have been feeling invincible in close range situations by the end, but Chelsea really need to work on their finishing. By the 89th minute, the visitors finally scored a deserved second goal, Chelsea players were literally queueing up to take shots. Even then Krul almost managed to keep out Kalou's attempt. Sturridge's stoppage time third was just cruel, especially in the way the final scoreline made it look as if Newcastle had been trounced. That was far from the case, though Chelsea did miss a lot of earlier chances.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/dec/03/newcastle-united-chelsea-premier-league
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