A fleeting loss of first-half control on Nicolas Jackson’s part threatens to costChelseaan awful lot of money and prestige.
The striker’s dismissal for smashing a forearm into Sven Botman’s face jeopardised his team’s hopes of Champions League qualification on a day when Enzo Maresca’s initially second-best, ultimately strangely dominant side, could easily have ended up collecting an unlikely point.
Newcastle are almost at the point where they can start dusting down the guide books to Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Munich et al but after a bright start resulted in Sandro Tonali’s opener Eddie Howe’s players rather lost their way against Chelsea’s 10 men and ended up a little flattered by the scoreline.
Injuries to Kieran Trippier and Joe Willock prompted an unexpected change of formation on Howe’s part. It involved Newcastle switching to a back three with Jacob Murphy relocating to right-wing-back and Anthony Gordon making his first start since March on the left of an attacking trident.
Gordon’s early advances caught Chelsea half asleep – no wonder Maresca had dubbed the midday kick-off time “practically first thing in the morning” – and the way was paved for Murphy to cross with menace.
That delivery was met on the volley by Tonali, leaving the Italy midfielder to watch with glee as the ball crashed into the turf before looping over the wrongfooted Roberto Sánchez.
It was already evident that the customarily impressive Moises Caicedo, once again deployed out of position at right-back by Maresca here, was struggling against Gordon but Chelsea’s task become a whole lot more complicated once Jackson was sent off for elbowing Botman in the head.
Jackson had become increasingly frustrated in the face of tight marking and flung out an arm as he and Botman challenged for a header. Although the referee, John Brooks, initially reached for a yellow card, a VAR review was inevitable.
As home fans chorused “off, off, off” and Maresca filled the warm spring air with expletives Jackson tried to argue he had merely been protecting himself but, unmoved, Brooks upgraded the sanction to a red card. As the forward meandered off appearing sulkiness personified, a still molten Maresca made sure he turned on his heel and looked away.
Granted Botman was caught by more of Jackson’s wrist than the actual elbow joint but from certain angles at least it looked a deliberate, clearly calculated, forearm smash and, deep down, Jackson will surely know he had only himself to blame. The case for the prosecution is only strengthened by the miscreant taking his eye off the ball and aiming a couple of sneaky glances in the referee’s direction before swinging that elbow.
Given that the ensuing suspension will sideline him for the final two games of the season Chelsea could yet pay a very high price for that momentary indiscipline.
Well before that game-changing cameo Howe’s new-look version of 3-4-3 had seemed extremely assured but now Maresca was not just being tactically bested but numerically too.
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As the minutes passed the visiting manager looked ever more disconsolate as he prowled the technical area in a salmon pink sweatshirt. Howe, sticking with his trademark black tracksuit, switched his team to a back four after replacing Botman with Lewis Miley.
Newcastle’s manager would have noted that Maresca’s half-time replacement of Noni Madueke with Reece James had stabilised Chelsea 10 men a little, not to mention allowing a happily relocated Caicedo to finally help his side start to control midfield. Might things have been different if the Londoners had kicked off with James at right-back? Would he have done better than Caicedo against Gordon?
Howe was sufficiently concerned to send on a no-nonsense defender in Emil Krafth with the Sweden right-back replacing Gordon in a reshuffle that permitted Murphy to rejoin the attack.
Tellingly Newcastle had been restricted to merely a couple of second-half shooting chances with the underwhelming Bruno Guimarães and the, once again, slightly out-of-sorts Alexander Isak missing two rare opportunities as their guests at least made them work for the win.
With Chelsea now dominating, Newcastle were forced to drop ever deeper as home fans became a more than a little nervous. Hearts were duly in mouths as Enzo Fernández met Jadon Sancho’s lay off and forced Nick Pope into an excellent one-handed save and then James headed narrowly off target with the goal at his mercy.
Confirmation that it was Newcastle’s day arrived when, on a rare second-half excursion into the visiting half, Guimarães met the fallout from a free-kick and watched his ensuing shot take a hefty deflection off Malo Gusto before looping past a stranded Sanchez.