Indeed his prediction came to pass, a strong Newcastle performance once again giving the away team the blues. Newcastle defended well, getting men behind the ball, mainly limiting Chelsea to shots from outside the box. On the break the home side threatened with a good attempts by Colback. A half-time injury to Elliot meant a debut for young Woodman, who quickly imposed on the match by clearing out Costa on a cross.José Mourinho wrote:It’s difficult, a difficult stadium to play at. There are a few stadiums in this country where, clearly, when they see the Chelsea shirts, they play the game of their lives. When they play against other teams they look like they’re playing friendlies.
Ultimately substitute Cissé broke the deadlock, moving well into pace for Ameobi's low cross, then adding another on the break. The arrival of Drobga for Chelsea began to worry the home defence, especially once Steven Taylor walked for his second yellow. Indeed from the free-kick a goal arrived. Ultimately though, Newcastle held on for a deserved 2-1 victory. After the match José was (by his standards) gracious in defeat "No complaints. Unlucky. We had lots of chances."
We ask our forum members to rate each player’s performance in the concerned game out of 10, which we then average out to get a rating representative of the fans’ views, we also collect a few user comments to summarise how the player did and show a few different viewpoints from the board. The top scoring player is man of the match; the lowest is mug of the match. Ratings are from this thread, and at the time of writing highlights can be found here.
We had 29 users rating this match. Man of the match went to Colback, despite many users' general scepticism of his play in the season thus far. His rating of 8.52 came from his high workrate, positioning, tackling, and passing, noticeably the weighted through pass to Sissoko for the second goal. High scores also came for the defence, which contained Chelsea well until losing a man. The mug of the match was joint between Cabella and Tioté (5.64), with average performances perhaps not worthy of being called mugs. Ameobi, despite his assist also scored poorly.
The manager rated at 8.52, thanks to another well executed gameplan with appropriate team selection and tactics against superior opposition. In his time at the club this campaign, that score is second only to his masterminded victory over Manchester City in the cup. The team averaged a very respectable rating of 6.80.
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(You can click on player names to go to their pages)
Elliot - 5.84 Ratings ranged between 4.5 and 7
"4.5 - Didn't actually have much to do, but his diving is so so slow. I would rather play Alnwick than him based on the evidence we've seen."
"6 - Fairly decent game, was better than Alnwick, who will steal the headlines."
"6.5 - Kept a clean sheet for the time he was on. That throw
." Janmaat - 7.21 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8
"7 - Great marauding fullback work and loads of decent crosses - but he takes Cabella out of the game by effectively usurping his role and is sometimes suspect at the back."
"7.5 - Best right back I can remember us having for a very long time. Gets forward excellently and can actually defend!"
"6 - Got caught upfield a little in the first half, but was quality except for those 2/3 occasions."
S. Taylor - 6.24 Ratings ranged between 4 and 8
"7 - Silly sending off but he was absolutely immense for 80 minutes."
"6 - Red card aside, I thought he was great today. Put his body on the line and helped contain Costa. Could have cost us the game though, as is the Steven Taylor way."
"5 - Would have got a 7.5 if it wasn't for the two yellows, all the ability but his mentality is so poor."
Coloccini - 8.14 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9
"7.5 - Quality. As much as we haven't missed him as much as previously, the defence definitely looked more organised."
"8.5 - Sensational one of the man of the matches, brilliant at blocking excellent interceptions, what a man."
"9 - MOTM. Led his pride of lions magnificently today."
Dummett - 7.19 Ratings ranged between 6 and 9
"7 - Getting along fine still. Seems to have improved his distribution going forward a bit too."
"9 - Unbelievable performance from everyone's favourite scapegoat."
"6 - Decent performance, would perhaps have preferred Haidara as a more solid defensive option considering both Oscar and Hazard continually had him the entire match."
Tioté - 5.64 Ratings ranged between 4 and 7
"4.5 - First half atrocious, but did good work when we had ten men. Gives the ball away far too often."
"7 - I thought he was quite good, not his best, but certainly not crap. Anyone who hates him for stupid private life problems can't really bring that forward to the game. He was good."
"6.5 - It wasn't his best performance, in the first half especially he was sloppy in possession and it really put us under pressure. The lack of game time and the Sun story about him obviously affected him, but he grew in the last twenty minutes. He really stood up and we need more of that over the coming weeks."
Colback - 8.52 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9.5
"8.5 - Well I'm eating some humble pie. He was 2x the player I thought he was today."
"9 - MOTM. Was pretty much everywhere. Made several excellent tackles, his pass for Sissoko's assist was brilliant, hassled and chased for the whole game. Literally the only smear all game was that miss but even so it wasn't the easiest finish to pull off."
"8 - Man of the match! He was quality today, when he came in, there was obviously a comparison with Anita, but he offers far more. He has a tenacity and work rate that Anita doesn't and his tackle on Costa was top class. His passing was good and he is getting in more attacking positions. He is desperate to score his first Toon goal, every time he misses a chance, he looks devastated, hopefully he gets his goal in the derby!"
Cabella - 5.64 Ratings ranged between 3 and 7
"4 - Poor. Did nowt going forward and left his full back isolated."
"5.5 - Didn't really make much of an impact. I think he may actually be used better as a sub."
"6 - Struggled to get into the game and was often isolated against 3 defenders, still had his moments."
Sissoko - 7.52 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8.5
"8 - Such a ridiculously good outlet in backs to the wall displays. We looked a lot better with him back running at people."
"7.5 - Relieved the pressure well for us."
"7 - Another strong performance, fluffed it in front of goal but Cisse was there to sort it out."
Ameobi - 5.95 Ratings ranged between 4 and 7
"6 - Good defensive display, as gangly as usual going forward but a decent assist."
"5 - Lazy and lacklustre today."
"6 - It wasn't his best performance and he wasted possession a few times, but he played his part. He got an assist and worked hard. He needs a new contract soon as he is looking every inch a Premier League player."
Pérez - 7.34 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8.5
"7.5 - Great touches at times and was surprisingly diligent when defending. Progress continues."
"6 - Looked threatening on the ball but was often so fast that other players couldn't catch up with him to support him."
"8 - Worked his socks off, playing most of the second half as an auxiliary right back. Quickly becoming a favourite."
Alnwick - 6.38 Ratings ranged between 4 and 8
"6.5 - Had way more to do than Elliot and did it well. His attempted save for Drogba's goal was utter s**** but can be forgiven for an otherwise commanding performance in his first league appearance."
"8 - A few good saves, didn't look overawed and genuinely did well."
"4 - Hard to come on being 3rd choice. Looked terrible in the air. Fearful every cross. Flappy hands. Jumping into thin air."
Cissé - 7.76 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8.5
"8 - 2 poachers goals, didn't play well but did what he does best."
"8 - Right place, right time. Twice."
"8.5 - Goals win matches and despite being a sub was man of the match today"
Williamson - 5.80 Ratings ranged between 5 and 7
"6 - Slotted into the defence well enough but didn't do anything massively notable."
"5 - Thank the Lord he wasn't on for too long."
"N/A - Not fair to judge someone on a defensive period that frantic."
Pardew - 8.52 Ratings ranged between 7 and 10
"10 - Great decision for the starting XI assuming Abeid's injured. Subs worked well. Can't really fault him to be honest, the gameplan worked excellently."
"8 - Had a plan to stop Chelsea getting through and bar a moment of idiocy from Taylor we may have kept a clean sheet. Made subs at the right time and set the team up perfectly. Well done to him."
"8 - We were a little lucky but you need that against a great team. In the early stages it was all them but we acted and Pardew got every sub right. Moving Perez to the wing made a massive difference as he seemed much more effective in his tracking back than Cabella."
"8 - Good team selection, good sub to bring on Cisse and game plan was spot on. The problem with Pardew has never been his ability to prepare a side, we always have good game plans, but it's when the game plan starts to fail that he doesn't cope well. Big month ahead."