Chelsea Take on Newcastle At The Bridge (Match Preview)

Newcastle will be heading to Stamford bridge to face Chelsea in the absence of key striker, Callum Wilson.

The last time Newcastle and Chelsea met was back in November where The Blues took all three points in a 2-0 away victory.

Both teams will be coming into the match with a specific motive to win as a win for Chelsea will see them pass Liverpool and sit fourth on 42 points while a win for Newcastle pushes them further away from the relegation zone.

Chelsea’s most recent home match was the FA cup tie against Barnsley in which they avoided history to repeat itself in a 1-0 Barnsley victory, as it happened in 2008.

As rightly pointed out by Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel, The blues lacked confidence and clinical decision making in their play and these were the same shortcomings that today’s Newcastle opposition faced under Frank Lampard.

After the disappointing performance Tuchel commented, “We scored the goal and I had the feeling that they increased the risk, but we stepped down in the little decisions.”

“Not enough courage and it was too deep for a long, long time. We clearly can play better, so yes I expected more but not in terms that I am frustrated.”

“We can do better but I don’t want to be too hard on the players.”

Despite the big-money signings Chelsea acquired last summer, it was still their academy graduates who gave them the victory after Billy Gilmore had regained possession and opened a pass for Reece James who then crossed the ball for a Tammy Abraham tap in, the only goal of the match.

Chelsea will surely look for more of that from the young talents when they host a Newcastle side without many key players making their ambition to play on the front foot in the match easier.

Most recent previous results

Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea (21/11/2020)
Newcastle 1-0 Chelsea (2020)
Chelsea 1-0 Newcastle(2019)

Players doubtful to start and/or will not play

Chelsea – Kai Havertz and Thiago Silva
Newcastle – Frederico Fernandez, James lascelles, Jeff Hendrick, Callum Wilson and Fabian Schär

The magpies last away match ended in a 2-0 victory over Everton.

Two goals from the Newcastle talisman, Callum Wilson on 63 and 90+3 minutes, saw today’s Chelsea opposition take all three points at the expense of Carlo Ancelotti’s team.

Without their top goal-scorer, Newcastle will look to Miguel Almiron who has been in some good form lately, scoring three goals in four matches, more than his last 32 matches for Newcastle, to provide the required goals against Chelsea.

A bonus to The Magpies is the return of Saint-Maximin to fitness, who would likely use his pace and trickery to get past Tuchel’s defence and likely supply an assist.

Team Form
Chelsea (Home)- three wins in five matches.
Newcastle (Away)- four losses in five matches.

Prediction: Either team win

The significance of the three points up for grabs in this fixture will make both teams go at each other in a relatively open game, though Chelsea would like to boss possession early on in the match to frustrate Newcastle.

It may possibly come down to who wanted it more between both teams.