James at the double as Chelsea dispatched Newcastle United 3-0

Chelsea made it four consecutive Premier League (PL) wins as they comfortably dispatched Newcastle United 3-0 away from home.

While new owners may be in town, promising the world to the St. James’ Park faithful, the reality is that the ‘Magpies’ are without a PL win this season and find themselves firmly in the relegation zone. 

As such, they need as many points as possible between now and the January transfer window if the inevitable new arrivals are to keep them up, and interim boss Graeme Jones was in no mood to give Chelsea an easy ride early on. The ‘Toon’ defended as a unit deep in their own half, frustrating the ‘Blues’ at every opportunity. 

Hakim Ziyech was the visitors’ biggest threat - he twice came close to beating Karl Darlow and actually did once, although his well-placed effort came from an offside position - but, through a combination of dogged determination and time-wasting, Newcastle reached HT on level terms.

After the interval, Chelsea continued to probe and immediately looked more dangerous. Again, Ziyech was at the heart of almost everything his side produced, forcing Darlow into a save before seeing his deflected effort strike the post. 

For the hosts, Allan Saint-Maximin, showed some nice touches, but they never truly looked like finding the back of the net as they instead concentrated on keeping their opponents out.

They did so until the 65th minute, when the deadlock was finally broken. There was little Darlow or the Newcastle backline could do about Reece James’ thunderbolt, which flew through a host of bodies, straight into the top corner. 

Incredibly, the right-back fired home again in the final quarter of an hour to grab his fourth goal of the campaign. Jorginho then completed the scoring soon after, firing from the penalty spot after Darlow brought Kai Havertz down in the area.

With Liverpool and Manchester City both failing to win their respective games against Brighton and Crystal Palace, Thomas Tuchel’s men extended their lead at the top of the table to three points. 

For Amanda Staveley and the rest of the Newcastle ownership, this was a stark reminder of how much work is to be done if they want to reach their lofty objectives.