Late goals from Ramires and Willian helped Chelsea come from two down to rescue a point as they drew 2-2 with Newcastle at St James Park. It was that bad. I’m very happy with the second half, really disappointed with the first half.
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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has slammed his players’ lackluster showing against Newcastle on Saturday, rating their performance as “minus one“.
Still, if you told Steve McClaren and his team pre-match that Newcastle would break their goal drought and get a draw against the Champions, they would probably have taken it.
Newcastle, maybe inevitably, flagged, and the introduction of Willian and Ramires changed the game. An intensity Newcastle couldn’t cope with. The English defender was played by Jose Mourinho in the League Cup win over Walsall, a League One team but ever since Terry was substituted at halftime against Manchester City, his role in the team has greatly been reduced. Mourinho was left frustrated with the performance of some of his players during the first half of the game. Eden Hazard seems to be getting back to his best after a poor start and I expect the Blues to win comfortably here.
“We need more people speaking, but unfortunately that’s not the style of some of the players”, he said. I don’t know. John has to behave like the captain he is and wait for the decision he wants’.
And remarkably, Chelsea were level after 86 minutes as Willian curled in a unsafe free kick towards Ramires which found its way straight into the back of the net.
But Ramires sparked the recovery with a long-range shot in the 79th minute.
“We started the fixture with an eight points difference to the top of the league and we finished it with an eight points difference and one match less away from home, in a stadium where it’s always hard for us”.
It is not his way, but then his team are no longer playing the Mourinho way. Yes, he has had some disciplinary problems but he plays with an edge and I liked what I saw.
Chelsea were without the suspended Diego Costa at the weekend but, in the form of muscle-bound Mitrovic, the game had another fiery forward who set the tone for Newcastle’s improvement.
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Chelsea will switch their attention to the Champions League this week when they face Mourinho’s former club Porto on Tuesday.
