Date: Saturday 30th
October 2021
Venue: St. James’ Park
Kick-off: 15:00 BST
This afternoon’s game
sees us take on a revitalised Newcastle at St James’ Park. They’ve got money
behind them they can’t wait to spend, and they’ve seen the back of Mike Ashley
and Steve Bruce, no doubt they’ll be wanting to dispense with us as well. So
far this season, the Magpies have played all the teams from 13th to 18th in the Premier League and
not beaten any of them, so we just know we’ll see peak Barcelona today.
We come into this
game after a 7-0 win against Norwich in the Premier League last Saturday and another
successful penalty shootout dispatched Southampton midweek to send us into the
Carabao Cup quarterfinals. After parting ways with Steve Bruce, Newcastle meanwhile,
took a point against Palace last weekend. They’ve lacked discipline in defence
though, so they’ll be delighted we’re still missing Werner and Lukaku. We
struggled for goals in open play against Southampton and whilst we’ve taken 10 from 12
points away so far this season, with Liverpool and City on our tails and both
looking bang in form, we can’t afford to drop any clangers this afternoon.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Newcastle stand-in Graeme Jones, says “What happens between now and January 1 is
going to define our season and it would be remiss of me if I didn’t concentrate
on the Chelsea game. We’ve got the Champions League winners coming here, so
I’ve not thought about anything else. If we beat Chelsea I’ll probably open a
bottle of red wine with my wife and celebrate. It would be a huge moment, but
I’m sorry to be boring, I’m not looking past that. My remit is just for Chelsea
and I want to help my football club be in the best position we can be in.”
Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, says “Things have changed for them [Newcastle], maybe in the
dressing room and in the club and belief in the city and in the belief of the
supporters with what’s coming. Maybe that affects the atmosphere in the stadium
for them and for us. Listen, we experience right now the huge value to play
against us. We come off these matches where we played as so-called favourites
and if you look again at the table, it is the same constellation. I liked a lot
how we approached these matches with the kind of intensity and effort we put
into these matches. It was a nice approach and the effort we absolutely want
from our team. To prove the point during the 90 minutes, we know very well that
you can turn things around and close gaps in 90 minutes. That’s football, that
is the game. Newcastle will try their best performance, the spectators will try
to help. We are responsible for us, for our limits, to set new standards and
meet our standards in what we demand. We expect a tough game and this cannot be
a surprise because we play in the Premier League and coming to a very emotional
and big club. That’s what we are looking for, we need to be on our best level
tomorrow to catch the three points. We are up for the three points.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Newcastle,
Martin Dubravka (foot),
Freddie Woodman and Paul Dummett are all out but Jonjo Shelvey is available
after serving a one-match ban.
For Chelsea, Mateo Kovacic (hamstring), Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner (hamstring) and
Romelu Lukaku (ankle) will all miss out, whilst Cesar Azpilicueta (shoulder),
N’Golo Kante (muscle) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (hip) and Andreas Christensen (dental)
should all be available.
TEAMS
NEWCASTLE (Possible line-up): Darlow; Krafth,
Lascelles, Clark; Manquillo, Hayden, Willock, Almiron, Ritchie; Wilson, Saint-Maximin
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Mendy; Azpilicueta,
Rudiger, Silva; James, Jorginho, Kante, Chilwell; Mount, Hudson-Odoi; Havertz
CURRENT FORM (PL)
NEWCASTLE: LDDLLD
CHELSEA: WWLWWW
LAST SEASON
Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea
(21st November 2020)
OTHER STUFF
- Newcastle have lost
five of the past six Premier League meetings.
- Chelsea did the
double over Newcastle last season.
- Newcastle can equal
their longest winless run of 10 games from the beginning of a top-flight
season.
- Chelsea have lost
just two of their last 18 away fixtures in all competitions
- Newcastle have won
only three of their past 17 Premier League home fixtures.
- Chelsea have won
five of their past six league matches.
- Newcastle are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this
season.
- Chelsea are the
first team to have as many as 14 different goalscorers in the first nine games
of a Premier League campaign.
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea
