Premier League Match Report: Chelsea 1-0 Newcastle United

Chelsea registered their fifth consecutive victory in all competitions, as the Blues moved up to 3rd in the standings with a hard-fought 1-0 win against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League on Saturday. 

The hosts came into the game as the outright favourites but the Magpies gave a good account of themselves for large quarters of the game before Marcos Alonso’s 73rd-minute strike sealed all three points for the Blues. 

Boosted by the surprise 1-0 victory over Man United heading into the international break, the travelling fans would have hoped for a repeat of that performance but Chelsea somehow managed to find a way to breach Newcastle’s stubborn backline in what proved to be a battle of attack against defence. 

The hosts struggled to carve out enough clear-cut opportunities in the first-half, with Steve Bruce’s well-organised unit doing enough to thwart a Chelsea side that didn’t offer much in terms of creativity in front of goal. 

Tammy Abraham and Willian had a couple of half-chances before Mason Mount spurned a guilt-edged chance from close range, firing his shot straight at Martin Dubravak after being set up by Callum Hudson-Odoi, who was arguably Chelsea’s most potent creative weapon in the final third. 

Newcastle threatened occasionally on the counter-attack but the Magpies just didn’t push enough players further up the pitch to really ask serious questions of the Chelsea defence, with Joelinton and Allan-Saint Maximin finding themselves isolated more often than not. 

With the scores tied at 0-0, Chelsea showed more intent after the interval to try and break the deadlock and Abraham nearly did so at the 56th-minute mark, only to see his header off Willian’s corner bounce back off the crossbar. 

Abraham was once again in the thick of things a few minutes later but the Blues academy star failed to time his header to perfection off Hudson-Odoi’s corner.

With Newcastle just happy to sit back and defend, chances began to flow thick and fast for the hosts and, a few moments later, Willian made a surging run through the Newcastle midfield to feed Hudson-Odoi, whose deflected shot fell kindly for substitute Christian Pulisic but the United States international was denied by a fine save from Dubravka. 

Just when it looked as if Chelsea were going to find it really difficult to break the visitors down, a moment of brilliance from Pulisic made all the difference.

The youngster made a surging run into the box and put in a perfect cross for Hudson-Odoi, who helped it on for Alonso to fire a low powerful drive past Dubravka.

The Blues had a golden opportunity to double their advantage with ten minutes remaining but DeAndre Yedlin produced a magnificent block to keep out a close-range effort from Abraham, who failed to capitalise on multiple chances over the course of the ninety minutes. 

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Ciaran Clark came closest to finding the net for Newcastle in the dying stages of the game but he fired his header just over the bar, as the Magpies ended the game without a single attempt on goal.

It wasn’t the most clinical display from Chelsea but they will be happy with the three points, nonetheless, while Newcastle dropped back down to the relegation zone with that defeat.

Here’s how some of the Chelsea fans reacted to the 1-0 victory:-