Chelsea’s trip to St. Mary’s Park after the international duties of the players had many questions regarding the team selection and also if Chelsea can hold onto their winning streak in the League.
A dominant performance from Chelsea gave Frank Lampard the three crucial points in the Premier League against Newcastle United. The win means that the Blues are going with a five-match streak and have remained unbeaten in their last 12 matches in all competitions.
Lampard already confirmed before the game about their veteran defender, Thiago Silva’s absence. He said he would not be in the line-up after he made a long journey to South America for international duties. He was replaced by the German international, Antonio Rudiger at the centre back to partner the Frenchman, Kurt Zouma. It was Rudiger’s first Premier League start this season after he started the Champions League group stage game against the Russian side, Krasnodar, and Ligue 1 club, Rennes.
Lampard’s side completely controlled the whole game from the very beginning to the end at their away game in their away game at St.James’ Park. Kai Havertz returned to the first XI after recovering from COVID-19 while Mateo Kovacic retained his spot in the midfield.
Chelsea’s first chance of the match came when midfielder Mason Mount delivered the ball to Timo Werner in Newcastle’s half and the German striker shot a low strike that forced Newcastle keeper, Karl Darlow to make an excellent fingertip save.
Mount again created a chance from a clever corner to find fullback, Reece James on the penalty box’s edge. Although James struck the ball hard with power, that didn’t help to go into the net past Newcastle United’s defence.
The Blues continued to dominate by keeping a good amount of possession in the initial phase and once again the keeper was tested by this time, Chelsea’s left-footed magician, Hakim Ziyech who gave an impressive curler to find Tammy Abraham. Once against the keeper denied Abraham and kept the scoresheet level.
After about 10 minutes, the Blues took a well-worked short corner from which Mason Mount fired a dangerous cross in the penalty box. The ball fell in the six-yard from the goal as the defenders of news castle fumbled to clear it away. This made Federico Fernandez- one of the players of the opposition team to divert the ball into their own goal amidst the chaos and pressure from Ben Chilwell.
Chelsea had the lead after just 10 minutes through a well-worked short corner, which resulted in Mason Mount sending a dangerous low cross into the six-yard box which the Newcastle defenders couldn’t sustain the pressure, as defender Federico Fernandez put it into his own net when pressed upon by Ben Chilwell.
It was a well-worked drill that the coach has rehearsed the boys in the practice session. The swift passing exchange between Mount, Werner and Ziyech from the corner kick was a beauty to the eyes. Lampard’s side had to wait long before their second goal came even after creating lots of big opportunities.
The goal came as a result of Werner’s brilliant run from which he passed to Tammy Abraham who slotted the ball into the goal. Werner may have not scored a goal in this match but his off the ball movement and combination with teammates ripped apart Newcastle United’s defense.
Werner was unlucky that he hasn’t been able to be there on the scoresheet of Chelsea which made it five League matches without his name in the goal scorers for the team. But Abraham’s goal was total because of Werner’s excellence. This implies that without scoring goals, Werner has been involved in Chelsea’s 10 goals in his previous six fixtures he appeared. In all competitions, Werner has netted seven goals for the team and assisted thrice.
It was to everyone’s surprise that Chelsea just won by a two-goal margin instead of a bigger margin. Werner’s goal was ruled out due to offside whereas Zouma and Mount were near enough to score their individual goals. Chelsea is now in the second spot in the Premier League table and seems like a genuine contender to win the league.
