Jose Mourinho is still to win a Premier League game at Newcastle, but the Chelsea boss must have felt like he was celebrating a victory after his side came from two goals down to rescue a 2-2 draw on Saturday.
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That certainly seemed to be the case as Newcastle found themselves with a two-goal lead after Georginio Wijnaldum flicked home header to add to Ayoze Perez’s opener.
Steve McClaren’s men were four minutes from a shock first win of the season, when sub Willian’s log range free kick, meant as a cross, flew straight past Tim Krul.
A good performance from the Newcastle centre-back.
But with Aleksandar Mitrovic, fresh back from his three-game ban, giving the Magpies a focal point, the likes of Vurnon Anita, Perez and Wijnaldum were revitalised. Whether Kurt Zouma will feature after his “cheat” comments about his team-mate remain unclear, but the defender quickly apologised and has looked solid in the Blues’ backline when called upon. Perez and Janmaat both had glorious opportunities in quick succession, but Begovic was thankful the shots were not more testing.
“It’s bad for them because if they play like this, they win many matches at home, and they don’t. but this is their problem”. And it was Mbabu who created the Magpies first chance on 12 minutes when he took the ball, cut right into the middle to create some space and took a long-distance shot.
With Chelsea obviously so risky on the counter Newcastle were probably thinking they needed to cash in on their overall supremacy with a goal before half-time, when one arrived from nowhere with three minutes to spare. “In the first half, from 0 to 10, [Chelsea were] -1”. We told the players to end the week well, and their attitudes were magnificent. “We looked a team today”.
“The second half was a positive but I have to think a lot about the negative first half”.
However, Ramires crashed in a stunning goal from the edge of the box after being teed up by Eden Hazard and Willian’s set-piece earned an unlikely draw.
Another good performance from the Newcastle forward which saw him score the first goal of the game with a brilliant finish before assisting Wijnaldum for the second from a corner.
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“In every aspect of the game, we were bad”. That was more like it. That’s the benchmark now.
