When Chelsea Had the Ball

Chelsea tried to play a fast, short-ball, attacking style of football. When they had the ball, they worked it down the Newcastle half, who then sat very deep to close spaces down. Diamé tried to put pressure on the midfielders and force them to lose possession.

The midfield for Chelsea worked very well, with Kanté enjoying his new role as a right midfielder. Also, Kovacic found his way into the team. The link between him and Hazard was slightly missing this time. Jorginho worked in the centre to keep the ball in Chelsea’s possession. He has always been seen as a classic defensive midfielder, and he plays that role close to perfection. He worked forward a lot, as Newcastle set back quite deep and tried to find ways through their first line of defence.

Going forward, Hazard clearly showed the most threat for Newcastle, continually walking by players and lucky to not find more holes to get a shot away. Morata, on the other hand, was invisible for the Chelsea team, which might have been the reason Giroud came on after about an hour into the match.

The play by Chelsea was not bad. Maybe they missed some creativity on the wings and the midfield, but it is understandable to get frustrated when you play against a well-organised, drilled team that sit back and defend most of the time.

Talking about defenders, Newcastle tried to avoid all attacking threats as long as possible. It wasn’t easy with two centre-backs who found themselves in the team for the first time. But Newcastle did well, and Clark seemed to have taken the step up to organise the lads around him. Yedlin, as we are already used to, was put a little more under pressure than, this game’s skipper, Dummett. The American had the tougher task to deal with as Hazard usually tried to find a way past him.