Chelsea takes revenge with a victory at Stamford Bridge after being defeated 4-1 by Newcastle in the first leg. Although the Londoners’ performance this season has been somewhat disappointing, sitting at 11th place in the table, they managed to offer their fans an interesting match full of memorable moments.
A Wave of Injuries
This game marks Marc Cucurella’s first appearance since his injury at the beginning of December, but the Blues are still hit by a wave of injuries, with Ben Chilwell, Levi Colwill, Reece James, and Christopher Nkunku still in recovery. For Newcastle, the only significant absence is that of Joellington, who has been dealing with a series of injuries since September.
Starting Formations
Chelsea starts the match in a formation characteristic of Pochettino, a 4-2-3-1 which he has used for most of the season, while Howe has opted for a 4-3-3 formation. The 4-2-3-1 splits the midfield into two defensive and three offensive parts, offering a balance between defense and attack, ideal for controlling the game. On the other hand, the 4-3-3 emphasizes offensive pressure, with three forwards and a midfield trio, favoring possession and quick attacks. Newcastle chose to leverage the advantages of the 4-3-3 formation through an aggressive play, employing a high press with 3 players right at the edge of Petrovic’s 16-yard box.
An even first half, dominated by aggressive pressing
The first half was marked by the aggressive pressing executed by Newcastle, with three players hunting the ball as soon as it was put into play by Petrovic. This tactic troubled the Londoners, which is clearly highlighted in the statistics, where Chelsea had a passing accuracy of only 78% compared to their average of 87%.
Newcastle’s aggressive pressing style caused considerable difficulties for the Blues.
The disadvantage of this pressing technique, with three men advanced in the center of the field, combined with the rotation between central defenders and midfielders, is that it leaves a lot of space in the center of the field, which can be easily exploited if the ball manages to leave the back of the field. We can see this by the fact that both Sterling and Palmer drop towards the middle of the field towards the central area and head straight towards the goal in the middle of the field to distribute the ball.
Raheem Sterling uses the space in midfield to create a dangerous phase.
This tactic was evident in the goal scored by Chelsea in the 6th minute, where Cole Palmer moved towards the center of the field to combine with Malo Gusto and take the ball out of Newcastle’s pressing. The midfielder responsible, Bruno Guimarães, was unable to cover Palmer’s incursion into the center of the field because he had to mark Connor Gallagher. Thus, Palmer managed to dominate the center of the field, brought the ball into the opposing half, and took advantage of a poor deflection to send a shot on goal, which was beautifully deflected with the heel by Nicolas Jackson, opening the score for the hosts.
Cole Palmer dominates the center of the field to break through the pressing.
However, Howe’s tactics had results towards the end of the half, where the crowding in the hosts’ half continued to create enough mistakes from the Londoners, leading to an equalizer just before the break. A trend we could observe in the first half was Newcastle’s desire to suffocate the left side of the field, leading to an overly strong clearance by Enzo Fernandez, which was intercepted and created chaos in the Chelsea camp at Stamford Bridge. Newcastle took advantage of the fact that Malo Gusto was a bit too central, leaving Disasi to cover both the center and the right flank of the field. Alexander Isak, noticing this, managed to occupy that free space and defeated Petrovic with a well-placed shot to the far corner.
Alexander Isak takes advantage of the space left by Malo Gusto to equalize the score.
Chelsea pulls ahead in the second half
In the second half, Cole Palmer continues to show why he is a top player through his technique and positioning on the field. For the second goal of Pochettino’s team, Cole Palmer waited between the defensive lines. Newcastle’s mistake was that they did not apply any pressure on Enzo Fernandez when he received the ball, leaving him enough time to choose the winning pass to Cole Palmer, who once again puts Chelsea ahead on the scoreboard.
Newcastle gives too much space to Fernandez, who chooses the decisive pass to Palmer, positioned between the lines of defense.
I must mention in this post that I cannot understand why Pochettino continues to insist on starting Sterling when his performances have been far below expectations. As beautiful as Palmer’s goal was, Sterling’s action in the following minute was just as disastrous.
In a crucial moment of the match, Enzo Fernandez demonstrates technical mastery, elegantly freeing himself to send a long pass directly to Nicolas Jackson. The forward, winning the aerial duel, serves the ball to Sterling, who leaves his defender behind, with Palmer in close support. Now, he faces a choice between two extremely simple options.
The first option is a decisive pass to his teammate, who would have no problem scoring, putting the team two goals ahead. The second option is a solo effort, which has no place in any team sport, where instead of passing the ball to a teammate, we complicate things, wait for the opposing team’s defenders to regroup, try to dribble past the goalkeeper alone, only to shoot directly at the two defenders whom we’ve given all the time in the world to block the goal line.
Of course, Sterling’s choice is almost always the second one.
Raheem Sterling shows us why he should no longer be a starter in Pochettino’s team.
This moment is in stark contrast to that of Mykhaylo Mudryk, who replaces Sterling in the 71st minute, and it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes for him to clearly demonstrate why he should be starting on the left side of the field. In the 75th minute, he has an explosive sprint that catches the opposing defense off guard, and even his own teammate, Connor Gallagher. Breaking the defensive line with a dizzying dribble through Fabian Schär’s legs, he bypasses Dúbravka and manages to make up for Sterling’s miss with an exceptional goal.
Mykhaylo Mudryk scores a superb goal, a rarity for Chelsea this season.
Newcastle does not leave Stamford Bridge without responding to the two goals scored by the hosts in the second half. At the beginning of the extra time, they take advantage of a too hasty entry by Cucurella. Jacob Murphy elegantly avoids this challenge with a spin in the space left open by Cucurella, and Chalobah fails to rotate in time to cover that space. Murphy capitalizes on this opportunity with a powerful shot to the near post.
Murphy takes advantage of the space left by Cucurella to beat Petrovic, setting the final score at 3-2 in favor of the home team.
An exciting match, marked by individual performances
The final whistle brings a victory at Stamford Bridge, which brings Chelsea within a point of 10th place in the Premier League. A position that is still well below expectations considering the quality of the team’s squad and the amount invested in assembling it. However, it’s impossible to ignore the impressive contributions of Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, and Mykhaylo Mudryk, whose performances highlight remarkable potential and elite player qualities.
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Raheem Sterling uses the space in midfield to create a dangerous phase.
Cole Palmer dominates the center of the field to break through the pressing.
Alexander Isak takes advantage of the space left by Malo Gusto to equalize the score.
Newcastle gives too much space to Fernandez, who chooses the decisive pass to Palmer, positioned between the lines of defense.
Raheem Sterling shows us why he should no longer be a starter in Pochettino’s team.
Mykhaylo Mudryk scores a superb goal, a rarity for Chelsea this season.
