Newcastle United 0-2 Chelsea, Premier League: post-match reaction, ratings

It was all Chelsea in the opening 45 minutes at St James’ Park, although most of our possession was in midfield and consistent with U-shaped passes around Newcastle’s massive ranks in defense – a line of five and a four line, with the attacker also often falling behind the ball.

Still, Chelsea have created enough opportunities to put the game to bed multiple times. Frustratingly, just one of those chances resulted in a goal, and it was thanks to Federico Fernández who made an absolute mess of a clearance and put the ball into his own net under pressure from Chilwell.

Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner missed most of the great chances, with the former heading a perfect Ziyech cross too close to the goalkeeper, and the latter shooting a big chance to get out of the post.

This pattern of play continued into the second half, although Newcastle are a bit more adventurous and Allan Saint-Maximin is still a problem. Fortunately, its supporting cast is poor.

After wasting a few more chances, Chelsea calmed our nerves by finally scoring a second, Tammy ending a block led by Turbo Timo.

The rest of the match went off in a welcome fashion, without too much untoward drama.

Carefree.

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• No surprise in Lampard’s starting lineup, which roughly matched the preferred lineup, including Rüdiger replacing a rested Thiago Silva. Chilwell recovering from his back injury in time to start was more than welcome.
• Changes at constant scope in Hudson-Odoi (for Werner), Emerson (for Chilwell) and Giroud (for Abraham Ziyech). So not exactly the same with the latter, with Abraham pushing widely to the right and Giroud in the center during the last minutes.
• Kanté continues to play the base of midfielder three, with Chelsea looking to create from the wings, especially the James-Ziyech combo on the right.
• Abraham with his 3rd goal of the season in the Premier League, 4th in all competitions. Back-to-back league matches with a goal for the big man. Werner gets help.
• Back in clean sheets, 6th of our last 7!
• Undefeated in twelve. Five consecutive wins!
• Just our second victory at St James’ Park since 2012.
• Chelsea take the lead, at least temporarily, ahead of Leicester City on goal difference.
• Next step: Rennes away on Tuesday in the Champions League.
• KTBFFH