Key events
Premier League clockwatch
There are three games kicking off at 2.15pm, including a vital game for Nottingham Forest at Leicester. If Newcastle win, Forest will move back into the top five with victory in that game.
“I’m all for the benefit of the doubt with swinging arms hitting a player behind as you have eyes on the ball and use your arms to jump and for leverage, etc,” says Hugh Molloy. “However, that all goes out of the window when you visually line a player up and no intent for the ball, definite red.”
I’d argue it’s a bit more nuanced than that. I don’t have oodles of sympathy for Jackson in this case – but you can, in the parlance of our time, do someone without looking. Equally, you can line them up and give them nothing more than a mildly erotic nostril tickle.
But yeah, the look betrays intent of some kind so he was asking for bother. The TNT pundits, Joe Cole and Peter Crouch, both think it was a red card.
“The Chelsea ‘All-At-C’ back four is entertaining, sure,” says Matt Dony. “But it’s hardly Young Fish Costa Fortune.”
A reference from the early 2000s, Matt? Why so modern?
Half time: Newcastle 1-0 Chelsea
Caicedo, Palmer and a couple of other Chelsea players have words with the referee at half-time. The reality is that they were being outplayed, outsmarted and outrun even before Nicolas Jackson was given a straight red for a forearm smash on Sven Botman.
Sandro Tonali scored in the second minute and bar some promising runs from Pedro Neto, all the threat has come from Newcastle. Tactically, the first half was exactly as Eddie Howe planned.
45+6 min A long free-kick is touched back towards the near post by Livramento. Barnes nips in front of Sanchez and pokes wide. The angle made it a nigh-on impossible chance.
45+5 min Enzo Fernandez is booked for dissent after querying a foul on Gordon by Palmer. Chelsea’s collective noggin isn’t far form going up like a balloon.
45+4 min Neto leads a Chelsea break, running half the length of the field before his shot from the angle is blocked by Botman. Burn couldn’t stay with Neto but did lean on him just enough to slow Neto down and allow Botman to get across.
45+1 min Tonali cuts the ball back to Isak, whose first touch takes the ball away from Cucurella. But it’s all very congested and Sanchez is able to stop Isak getting a shot in.
Six minutes of added time. Against 11 men and 10, Newcastle have been just brilliant.
44 min The resulting corner leads to a header from Burn that is easily saved by Sanchez. Not much of a chance.
43 min: Brilliant tackle from Chalobah! Murphy (I think) fires a pass into Guimaraes 20 yards from goal. He opens his body to angle a perfectly weighted first-time pass through to Barnes, whose shot on the run is blocked at source by the flying Chalobah. That’s really good defending. And the pass from Guimaraes was gorgeous.
42 min “Newcastle’s back three/four/five chameleon routine really did a number on Jackon’s headspace,” says Chris Paraskevas. “He found himself isolated against one or two of the centre-backs almost every time, and lost most duels. And when the ball squirmed free someone in black and white picked up the scraps.
“A pseudo-gegenpress/anti-football/Reverse WM cocktail. Another masterclass from Eddie (and a good thing he didn’t take my advice about Dan Burn as a left back!)”
40 min Out of nothing Chelsea produce their best chance. A low cross from the left reaches Neto, whose first-time shot is crucially blocked by the lunging Burn. I used to think Burn was more mouth than trousers; it’s nice to admit I was completely wrong. He’s been fantastic this season.
39 min Lavia is warned by the referee after fouling Guimaraes. Enzo Maresca is having an animated chat with the fourth official; in fact Maresca has just been booked.
As bad as this is for Chelsea – and it’s bad you know – they are pretty much guaranteed to finish in the top five if they win their last two games against Man Utd and Nottingham Forest.
38 min “I’ll see your 13 five-a-side goals and raise them to the 33 I scored just yesterday,” says Tim Woods. “My six-year-old was totally outclassed and I think he’d say the same himself.”
37 min A mighty header from Dan Burn swerves just wide of the far post. He was offside, so it wouldn’t have counted, but it was almost a mirror image of his goal against Liverpool in the cup final.
Nicolas Jackson is sent off!
36 min That’s a huge moment, and it means Jackson will be suspended for the lat two games of the season as well. It was a routine aerial challenge just past the halfway line. Jackson looked over his shoulder and then administered a forearm smash on Botman. I’m still not sure it’s worse than, say Tyrone Mings’ elbow yesterday, but as Roy Keane always says, don’t give the referee a chance to send you off.
The referee is going to the monitor!
35 min Nicolas Jackson is in abundant bother.
VAR check for a possible red card
33 min Jackson flattens Botman and is booked. It was a stiff arm to the face, in fact, and VAR are checking this. Not quite enough for a red is my instinct; it was a straight arm rather than an elbow.
30 min Caicedo again fouls Gordon, this time a gratuitous if relatively soft kick from behind. He’s very lucky he hasn’t been booked.
28 min Palmer tries a very imaginative long pass, designed to put Madueke through on goal. Murphy tracks his run and ushers the ball through to Pope.
Chelsea are having a lot more of the ball now, though it’s largely with Newcastle’s permission. The contrast in styles is really fascinating.
26 min Barnes, off balance, shoots straight at Sanchez after a good run infield from Murphy. Probably about 0.1 on the old xG.
23 min Newcastle played this system against Arsenal in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final and they are using exactly the same tactics: ferocious start, early goal, then sit deep with your back five and pick them off on the break.
21 min Murphy (I think) shapes a brilliant pass around Cucurella towards Barnes, forcing Sanchez to charge out of his area and clear. Excellent sweeper-keeping.
20 min Palmer has a long-range shot deflected wide. Newcastle are still on top but there have been one or two promising signs for Chelsea.
19 min: Chance for Isak! A long free-kick is headed back across goal by Botman towards Isak, 12 yards out and just beyond the far post. He slams the bouncing ball into the ground and Sanchez makes a comfortable save.
I thought the bounce made it an awkward chance but Ally McCoist on TNT Sports thinks he should have done better. Only one of us scored 13 goals on the astroturf at Latimer Road on 29 July 2002, that’s all I’m saying.
17 min Chelsea suddenly find themselves with a three-on-three break. Neto plays a good pass across the field to Jackson, who takes a heavy touch and then overhits his cross.
16 min Chelsea just need to stay in the game. They know Newcastle can’t sustain this tempo for 90 minutes, but if they get another goal soon they might not need to.
13 min Barnes plays a one-two with Isak and stands up a deep cross that is headed towards the edge of the area by Caicedo. Guimaraes shapes to lay it off, then tries a surprise chest-volley that goes over the bar. Nice idea.
12 min “Interesting to note that the entire Chelsea outfield defenders all have names beginning with C,” says Jeremy Boyce. “Not only that, they’ve kindly arranged themselves in alphabetical order by second letter: a, h, o and u. Not that it’s done them much good in the opening minutes…”
Are you calling them a cack four?
11 min Gordon storms away from Neto and cuts the ball back to Livramento just inside the area. He can’t decide whether to shoot or pass and in the end does neither.
Anthony Gordon is on fire.
10 min Caicedo fouls Gordon, who looks extremely sharp, and is maybe fortunate to avoid a yellow card. Moments later, Barnes’ shot from the edge of the area is blocked by Colwill. Newcastle have made their trademark blistering start at St James’.
7 min Barnes is okay. Turns out it was a clash of knees with Chalobah so he just needed a couple of minutes for the pain to subside.
6 min That really was the best of Sandro Tonali, particularly the way he swarmed all over Romeo Lavia to win the ball back. What a fabulous player he is, and what mental strength he has shown after
5 min Harvey Barnes is down and needs treatment. Doesn’t look great.
The corner was cleared and Gordon hared down the field, all the way into the area. He went down after a lean/shove from Caicedo, prompting a big shout for a penalty that was turned down. Tonali won the loose ball off Lavia just outside the penalty area and quickly gave it to Isak. He swept it out to the right wing-back Murphy, who slid a superb low cross into the space between goalkeepers and defenders.
It was missed by the lunging Isak in the middle and reached Tonali, who had backed up the play, five yards out at the far post. He stunned a first-time shot into the ground and over the diving Sanchez. No idea whether he meant that finish but it worked perfectly because Sanchez was already on his way down.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Chelsea (Tonali 2)
The Chelsea corner leads to a goal – for Newcastle!
1 min Chelsea kick off from left to right as we watch and win a corner inside 20 seconds. Newcastle have started, as we expected, with three centre-backs.
A cracking stat from Darren Fletcher on TNT Sports. This is the first time since December 2018 that Chelsea have named the same side for three consecutive Premier League games. And that team, since you asked, was:
Kepa; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Rudiger, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic; Willian, Pedro, Hazard.
A reminder of the teams, who are walking into the Newcastle sunshine as I type.
Newcastle (possible 3-4-3) Pope; Schar, Botman, Burn; Murphy, Bruno Guimaraes Tonali, Livramento; Gordon, Isak, Barnes.
Substitutes: Dubravka, Ruddy, Lascelles, Wilson, Krafth, Osula, Longstaff, Miley, Neave.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; Lavia, Enzo; Neto, Palmer, Madueke; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin, Badiashile, Acheampong, Gusto, James, Dewsbury-Hall, Sancho, George.
Referee John Brooks.
“Four of the Chelsea back five played for Brighton (Sanchez, Caicedo, Colwill on loan, Cucurella),” notes Simon Dobinson. “Did they all play for Brighton at the same time? If they stayed at Brighton would Brighton now be in a Champions League spot? Do Chelsea fans think £220m is value for money?
“Of course, you could add Dan Burn to that list as well, and although Sanchez is a liability a back five of Sanchez – Caicedo – Colwill – Burn – Cucurella is a pretty solid Brighton defence. They will all be playing Champions League next year and Brighton will once again be challenging for .. um .. 10th?!
“Good old Sussex by the sea …”
So are we now saying Brighton lack ambition? That’s a volcanic take. Btw I don’t think they played together – I think Cucurella was sold the same summer that Colwill joined on loan.
“Was wondering over the week, where I watched my club go out of the Champions League with strength but not quite enough of it, I did wonder… Would Newcastle do well against this PSG team?” writes Kieran McKintosh. “Physical midfields. Lightning-quick forward lines. Towering defenders. PSG have the better goalie, but other than that I did wonder if Newcastle have the tools to give them more of a run for their money.”
They thrashed them last season, didn’t they? A different PSG, I realise, but it supports your argument. I was surprised just how much Arsenal’s fast start unnerved PSG on Wednesday night. That said, I still think they’re the best team in Europe and I wonder whether Inter’s approach might be more effective. If you go after PSG, the chances are you’ll be picked off, what, nine times out of 10?
And Enzo Maresca’s
We have three more games so this won’t define the season, but for sure this is an important game.
We played Everton and Liverpool with the same team as today. They are doing well and it’s good to continue that.
We anticipate a tough game. Nice environment, tough opponent. They will be very, very aggressive, we know that, so hopefully we can be ready.
Eddie Howe’s pre-match thoughts
[Is it a season-defining game?] Yeah, I think it is. We know the importance of the game. You can see how tightly packed it is, especially after yesterday’s results. The onus is on to break that down and focus on the game.
[On the absence of Trippier and Willock] They both have minor injuries from our last game. Hopefully we’ll see them before the end of the season; there’s no guarantee on that. But we bring in two outstanding players (Botman and Gordon). Slight readjustment but hopefully the two guys who come in will play well.
They’ve got really good attacking players, good pace in their team. We anticipate a really good game today. We’re at home so we need to use that to our advantage.
Louise Taylor
An unusually warm north east sun means that there are a lot of men in shorts heading to St James’ Park. Many of them will have taken advantage of Newcastle’s offer of a free pint of beer or cider or a bottled soft drink to those arriving at the ground before 11am. The idea is to lift what club executives fear could be a slightly muted atmosphere ahead of an unusually early kick off.
Presumably they feel the subsequent release of inhibitions will inspire Eddie Howe’s players, while the initial outlay is likely to be recouped by fans buying second and third pints. The interesting thing in this assumption is that the 2022 World Cup in Doha was effectively dry but, for all the legitimate criticisms around Qatar hosting the tournament, the atmosphere within stadiums was excellent.
No alcohol was needed to get the stands rocking – and an additional benefit was that it created a much safer environment, for women in particular. Moreover on a day when, being Sunday, public transport is limited – and non existent in some areas – and a high percentage of fans will drive to the game is it really sensible to encourage them to drink?
On the pitch for this High Noon duel with Chelsea there is a blow for Newcastle as the latterly influential Kieran Trippier has failed a fitness test. This dictates Dan Burn will almost certainly start at left back, leaving Tino Livramento to revert to the right. With Joe Willock also out injured, Howe recalls Anthony Gordon for his first start since March. With Jacob Murphy and Harvey Barnes also starting, that means Newcastle have three wingers on the pitch.
The Champions League mini-league table
It’s auto-generated, I’m not trolling Brentford.
In the return fixture, a 2-1 win for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Cole Palmer played one of the passes of the season. As nobody once said, genius gonna genius.
“G’day Rob,” writes Chris Paraskevas, our antipodean Geordie. “Hope you’re well! Currently out with Mum for dinner (Mother’s Day festivities… got her a present in the hope it’ll score me an early mark… not that she runs my life, I’m an adult now.)
“Gordon and Botman coming back is heartening, although Trippier had really played his way into form in recent weeks. Whether Burn will be exposed in that left-back spot is the big question, though he’s deceptively mobile.
“This is a massive game for us: a win would almost get us to that crucial UCL spot but a loss could be catastrophic (particularly if we start playing poorly and I’m in public).
“I better get going: Num is staring at me.”
I wonder whether the formation is a back five, with Livramento at left wing-back (against the right-footed Neto) and Murphy at right wing-back against the left-footed Madueke.
Read Louise Taylor and Jacob Steinberg’s preview
Who needs to shine if they are to win?
Chelsea: Nothing fancy here – you can’t look past Cole Palmer. The 23-year-old makes Chelsea tick and his mojo was back against Liverpool. A late penalty ended an 18-match goal drought and there was encouragement from a performance full of Palmer’s trademark creative genius.
Not that Chelsea are a one-man team. Moisés Caicedo was named the club’s player of the year last week. The midfielder has continued to excel since being deployed as an auxiliary right-back. The ploy has allowed Enzo Maresca to put Romeo Lavia next to Enzo Fernández, who has been in fine goalscoring form. Nicolas Jackson’s return from a hamstring injury has also sharpened the attack. As for the defence, Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah will have to be at their best against Alexander Isak.
Team news
Two enforced changes for Newcastle from the draw at Brighton last weekend. Sven Botman and Anthony Gordon replace the injured pair of Kieran Trippier and Joe Willock. That either means a change of formation (4-2-3-1? 3-4-3?) or a move back into midfield for Jacob Murphy.
Botman hasn’t started a game since the Carabao Cup semi-final win over Arsenal in early February; Gordon is back in the XI for the first time since being sent off against Brighton in the FA Cup on 2 March.
Chelsea stick with the team that beat Liverpool 3-1.
Newcastle (possible 3-4-3) Pope; Schar, Botman, Burn; Murphy, Bruno Guimaraes Tonali, Livramento; Gordon, Isak, Barnes.
Substitutes: Dubravka, Ruddy, Lascelles, Wilson, Krafth, Osula, Longstaff, Miley, Neave.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; Lavia, Enzo; Neto, Palmer, Madueke; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin, Badiashile, Acheampong, Gusto, James, Dewsbury-Hall, Sancho, George.
Referee John Brooks.
Preamble
Here we have an English top-flight match played in mid-May between the teams in fourth and fifth place. Once upon a time that would have been a dead rubber. Dodo-dead. Doornail-dead. Dead.
Not anymore. Newcastle and Chelsea meet at St James’ Park this lunchtime in a match that is alive with importance, narrative and – how could we forget – cold, hard, PSR-eligible cash.
Both teams are desperate to qualify for the Champions League next season; both know that, if they lose, they will probably finish the day outside the top five. With three games to go they are level on points and goal difference, with Newcastle ahead on goals scored. That’s where the similarities end. The clash of styles – Newcastle’s high tempo against Chelsea’s patient possession – adds another layer to the contest.
The lack of a title race – at one time we thought Liverpool v Arsenal would be a decider – or relegation battle has also increased the anticipation ahead of this game.. It’s not Liverpool v Arsenal in 1989, sure, or even the alternate-reality Liverpool v Arsenal in 2025. But the mouth never lies, and right now it’s watering big-time.
Kick off 12pm.
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