1 minute ago, Valerie said:

Another match that makes me wonder: what is the point of Newcastle?

Beer?

Urgh I really can’t stand Jermaine Jenas, he’s always on the TV.

Certainly feels great to be back on top of the pile ?

Well done Frank and Team !

2 minutes ago, mojo said:

The best part of that goal is the perfect weight he put on the pass, running at that speed with the adrenaline pumping its very easy to over hit it but he got it so right, beautiful assist.

We've kept a clean sheet in 7 of our last 9 games.

Very impressive turnaround.

Early KO, Early Win, Top the League, Saturday, it must beer o’clock UTC

We managed to navigate a tricky fixture well. Should have scored more. A  clean sheet  and top of the league tho! Go Chels! 

f**k it, great game with so many chances to put it to sleep missed!! I wish I enjoyed a game like this last season at St James’ Park... 

On a negative note, my god Emerson can be mediocre 

Top of the table with +12 GD, now this is starting to look like a title winning team.

What's more impressive than the clean sheet today are these stats.

Newcastle: 

28% possession

1 shot on target

Frank and team had been doing pretty damn well so far.

Many positives from what was set up to be a very tricky game. 
- No Havertz, Pulisic, or Silva
- Lack of preparation time, fagitue and players returning from Intl duty
- Lost 5 of last 7 away to Newcastle

What we saw was a professional, focused and disciplined performance.  The early goal certainly made a difference.  Wasteful with chances and always feel old Chelsea would be punished for this.  Full credit to Frank and team on preparation and execution. 4-3-3 is a much improved balance, especially with Mount deeper.  Kante, Mount, Zouma and James - all excellent and leaders today.

Standout point to me - 5 regular starters from last season all on the bench (Kepa, Dave, Jorginho, Christensen and Giroud).  That's not a dig as we need a deep squad, but a sign of our increasing quality.
 

Good win, good performance. Always nervous, until the second goal.

We could have won by 6 today. And another clean sheet.

Blue is the colour.

3 hours ago, DidierDrogbalala said:

What are you smoking ?

If you'd have watched the game, more or less every time James gets the ball, regardless of whether he is in the opponent's half the ball goes backwards, Chillwell on the other hand constantly tries to move the ball forward.  Rewatch the game and you'll see what I mean.

2 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

If you'd have watched the game, more or less every time James gets the ball, regardless of whether he is in the opponent's half the ball goes backwards, Chillwell on the other hand constantly tries to move the ball forward.  Rewatch the game and you'll see what I mean.

I wouldn’t say he does it every time but he does do it a lot but I think it’s been drilled in to a lot of our players over the years to aimlessly pass it around the back line, it’s the Chelsea way!

No chance to watch the game. Was updating this thread and Premier League app during the game. Good late night watching the entire match from a recording... Was really never nervous after we scored first. Apparently not the best game from us but without so many absentees we have a very good squad. Too early for the title shouts but we really have a balanced side.

I would say the biggest threat for a good season for us is Mendy gets injured. I really think we need to buy a backup keeper in January. Kepa in goal and we lose. 

Anyway Frank and the boys deserve all the praise. We are really a top side. 

28 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

If you'd have watched the game, more or less every time James gets the ball, regardless of whether he is in the opponent's half the ball goes backwards, Chillwell on the other hand constantly tries to move the ball forward.  Rewatch the game and you'll see what I mean.

If you watch the game with that agenda then yeah.

3 minutes ago, evissy said:

 

I would say the biggest threat for a good season for us is Mendy gets injured. I really think we need to buy a backup keeper in January. Kepa in goal and we lose. 

and the 2nd is Silva. we had no leader at the back and if were against a team with attacking ambitions we would have let some in today.

Phew, the stats may tell a different story, but it being only 1-0 until the last 25 or so, had me in ‘threepenny bit, half a crown’ mode for a while and no mistake !!

In truth if it ended up 2-5 , as a score line, that would have been about right , but if it had went 1-1 then .........you know that story, we’ve lived it enough in recent times.

Thankfully it ended up 0-2 so we are all pleased as punch and top of the pile !! 

Positives today,

Mendy continues to be everything you want your keeper to be - and I too felt that in spite of missing the target, there was a Newcastle effort that if Kepa was between the jumpers, would have somehow been a goal ?

Wow, we have a brace of quality full backs in chilly and James,  James was outstanding today, didn’t make a bad decision and coped with everything - MOTM for me.

Zouma is an immense man and what a force he is, so powerful - had a good game today and Rudiger did ok too.

Kante has to start every game in this position, he too was awesome and back to his imperious best.

Kova and Mount paired up ok, Mount continues to be a very capable, he never ducks responsibility even though he sometimes gets it wrong, always always puts a shift in, no wonder Frank thinks so highly of him and he’s still only a pup !

Thought Ziyech had a quite-ish game, showed the best and worst of his passing today ?

Read with interest the earlier comments on Tammy v Timo and who is the biggest waster - for what it’s worth, I like Tammy but I don’t think he’s a long term solution , his anticipation and awareness are lacking, not sure you can teach that, think it’s just instinctive and you’ve either got it or you haven’t and his goal today was only just - maybe he meant it in off the post but I’m not convinced, thought he should have done better with the header too. Werner, he frustrates and excites in equal measure, but he does get himself in positions to miss the opportunity rather than not , Tammy’s goal was all about Werner. Giroud. he’s there ‘in case of’ injury/loss of form, purely and simply that, he’s not the long term future, he’s for this season maybe next at most.

At 2-0 up, James seemed to have a knock - thought FL would of,  maybe should of, taken James off and put Azpi on .

I’m a big advocate for not changing a winning side, but battles need to be picked, so change away Frank for Tuesdays game if necessary to get the best 11 fresh and ready for those c**ts next Sunday.

7 minutes ago, Paddy said:

Phew, the stats may tell a different story, but it being only 1-0 until the last 25 or so, had me in ‘threepenny bit, half a crown’ mode for a while and no mistake !!

In truth if it ended up 2-5 , as a score line, that would have been about right , but if it had went 1-1 then .........you know that story, we’ve lived it enough in recent times.

Thankfully it ended up 0-2 so we are all pleased as punch and top of the pile !! 

Positives today,

Mendy continues to be everything you want your keeper to be - and I too felt that in spite of missing the target, there was a Newcastle effort that if Kepa was between the jumpers, would have somehow been a goal ?

Wow, we have a brace of quality full backs in chilly and James,  James was outstanding today, didn’t make a bad decision and coped with everything - MOTM for me.

Zouma is an immense man and what a force he is, so powerful - had a good game today and Rudiger did ok too.

Kante has to start every game in this position, he too was awesome and back to his imperious best.

Kova and Mount paired up ok, Mount continues to be a very capable, he never ducks responsibility even though he sometimes gets it wrong, always always puts a shift in, no wonder Frank thinks so highly of him and he’s still only a pup !

Thought Ziyech had a quite-ish game, showed the best and worst of his passing today ?

Read with interest the earlier comments on Tammy v Timo and who is the biggest waster - for what it’s worth, I like Tammy but I don’t think he’s a long term solution , his anticipation and awareness are lacking, not sure you can teach that, think it’s just instinctive and you’ve either got it or you haven’t and his goal today was only just - maybe he meant it in off the post but I’m not convinced, thought he should have done better with the header too. Werner, he frustrates and excites in equal measure, but he does get himself in positions to miss the opportunity rather than not , Tammy’s goal was all about Werner. Giroud. he’s there ‘in case of’ injury/loss of form, purely and simply that, he’s not the long term future, he’s for this season maybe next at most.

At 2-0 up, James seemed to have a knock - thought FL would of,  maybe should of, taken James off and put Azpi on .

I’m a big advocate for not changing a winning side, but battles need to be picked, so change away Frank for Tuesdays game if necessary to get the best 11 fresh and ready for those c**ts next Sunday.

Also meant to say , in context of the above, Newcastle were poor for me today, seemed to lack any ambition or motivation ? 

Like everyone else on here absolutely delighted with the result. We looked tired at times which is understandable given the travelling our international players have made. Frank was complaining with good reason about the early kick off time but one positive is our players will have a longer recovery time and at this level even the slightest of marginal gains can make a difference. We all know the big one is next weekend and seeing how good they look it will be a real test. UTC, Frank is class.

1 hour ago, bisright1 said:

If you watch the game with that agenda then yeah.

I have no agenda, he's a great young player I get it, but he constantly plays the safe ball and its always backwards even though we are attacking and the forwards are charging to get up the pitch...busting their gut only to find the ball being played backwards where they have just sprinted from...maybe there is nothing ahead of him at times, but IMO he needs to be more forward thinking beyond his 2 or 3 crosses a game...as I said Chillwell is always looking to play forward, whereas James does not.  

2 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

If you'd have watched the game, more or less every time James gets the ball, regardless of whether he is in the opponent's half the ball goes backwards, Chillwell on the other hand constantly tries to move the ball forward.  Rewatch the game and you'll see what I mean.

I don't know official stats but I don't think anyone puts the ball in the box more then James

36 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

I have no agenda, he's a great young player I get it, but he constantly plays the safe ball and its always backwards even though we are attacking and the forwards are charging to get up the pitch...busting their gut only to find the ball being played backwards where they have just sprinted from...maybe there is nothing ahead of him at times, but IMO he needs to be more forward thinking beyond his 2 or 3 crosses a game...as I said Chillwell is always looking to play forward, whereas James does not.  

He is more passive than Chilwell for sure, but I'm pretty sure despite that he still gets in more crosses a game than Chilwell does, better ones at that. Even though Chilwell will get higher up the pitch. 

1 hour ago, CFCCAN said:

I have no agenda, he's a great young player I get it, but he constantly plays the safe ball and its always backwards even though we are attacking and the forwards are charging to get up the pitch...busting their gut only to find the ball being played backwards where they have just sprinted from...maybe there is nothing ahead of him at times, but IMO he needs to be more forward thinking beyond his 2 or 3 crosses a game...as I said Chillwell is always looking to play forward, whereas James does not.  

It's not that simple now is it? Chilwell often gets the ball when someone is really switching the flank where he has more space, James can be more involved in transition and gaining space.

James had a good game by all means, on both ends of the pitch and that's a fact. He's currently among the top 5 players when it comes to the sheer number of crosses made, sometimes it's beneficial to keep it simple at some areas and keep the ball moving and to win space but James is pretty much a direct player when he gets more forward just like Chilwell.

Top performance. Great to see Rudiger back and it gives me hope that Lampard has finally moved on from picking physically soft players who look the part but wilt at the first sign of pressure. Christensen well and truly on the outer now.

Truth is we should have won by at least four. Werner again showing his streaky finishing but that assist at the end for Abraham was sublime. Well done to Mount, James and Kante who were all at the top of their game.