Pleased for the team and Mudryk hopefully he now scores more.

Credit also to the penalty takes and the keeper.

Caicedo was fortunate with that early challenge.

Sterling also had some decent attempts on target.

 

47 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Same here, although I am worried that if we don't get our mojo working soon we will start losing important players again due to over use. Fully expecting Palmer to get an injury soon just due to constant over use.

Constant over use, get a grip mate. We’re not in Europe. Frank Lampard didn’t have a problem starting every single game while we were competing for every trophy there is.

We only play once a week mostly except Christmas and the odd cup game here and there.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Of course we can have sympathy for our injury issues. You can't tell me you have seen anything in football like you have seen with our club for the past 3 years. You say we shouldn't have sympathy because of the money spent, but why does that matter when most of that investment has been injured and we have been filling the bench up with kids most games? You can criticise the money spent and quality of football and still feel sympathy for the injury problems we have had.

It also doesn't matter how much you spend, constant injuries will dramatically damage your chances of success. Look at Liverpool a few seasons back, or even City this season. City without De Bruyne, Stones and Rodri at times has seen them drop points they would never drop if they had these players fit.

It can also be argued that Newcastle only have themselves to blame. Nobody forced them to go into the season with a small squad.

And they don't even have a small squad either LOL.

29 players listed on the Newcastle website : https://www.nufc.co.uk/teams/first-team/ 

1 hour ago, Ernie_blue said:

Tbf Newcastle injuries are horrendous and worse than Chelsea's and that's with a smaller squad and playing 2 games a week. Newcastle was always going to be tired and there best attacking sub was Ritchie. Chelsea should be jealous of the way Newcastle is run and the transfers which they have done.

Newcastle fans Are jealous of our success and are super bitter about it. As far as they're concerned we're not a big club and bought everything. you can buy all the best players and still not win everything (PSG anyone?)  I'm waiting to see once they win something (after all the last time was 1969!) how the morality police responds.

Before Newcastle was bought I personally thought they were a good target because they have a big stadium and get big crowds. Really though who gives a rats about them or anyone else. It's on us to develop a style and win more. You wanna be the best you have to beat the best. If that means dominating the barcodes then so be it.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

Constant over use, get a grip mate. We’re not in Europe. Frank Lampard didn’t have a problem starting every single game while we were competing for every trophy there is.

We only play once a week mostly except Christmas and the odd cup game here and there.

Lampards an exception not the rule.

There's only so much constant football you can play until players break down.

Not the most fluent performance but we made it through in the end and showed some spirit to keep going until the end. Newcastle were predictably hard to break down but offered little going forward, Ultimately, I think we deserved to get a positive result and it was nice to see us get an important late goal for once. That hasn't happened much recently. Quite a few other positives too including

-Nkunku got some minutes and a boost from scoring one of the penalties. 

-Mudryk's confidence should be helped after the equalizer and scoring the winning penalty. 

-A good night overall for Petrovic in goal, capped with a great penalty save.

-Maatsen finally got to play at LB, with Gusto as RB. Could we perhaps see that a bit more often while others are out injured?

-Caicedo (apart from escaping the early red) was decent. Conor too.

An important result and gives us the semis to look forward to in January. 

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

Let's hope he keeps (no pun intended) his job... looks to be a much safer pair of hands than Sanchez.

3 hours ago, Dr. Socrates said:

Gusto and Maatsen as full backs. Now there’s a thought. Honestly don’t know why it’s taken the manager so long. 

If we were scoring goals then yes but we make ourselves very vulnerable to set pieces with both Gusto and Maatsen in the team. 
 

It would work better with 3 CB’s I reckon and them as wing backs.

Extended highlights:

 

 

 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Extended highlights:

 

 

 

Had to chuckle when at about 5:35 the commentator said ... ohhh and he's been putting those away lately - about Jackson 😁

More I see Mudryk's goal the better it looks.

Thank goodness for that!😀

Shattered this morning and I was just listening to the match commentary on the official website!!😀😀

 

 

Edited December 20, 20232 yr by erskblue

 

 

Finally I can say we put the better performance, we deserved to win. Well done boys!

COME ON CHELS!

6 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Constant over use, get a grip mate. We’re not in Europe. Frank Lampard didn’t have a problem starting every single game while we were competing for every trophy there is.

We only play once a week mostly except Christmas and the odd cup game here and there.

He wasn't 19 or 20 years old. The game is twice as fast now than it was 10 years ago. The kids are athletically different. The pitches, the ball, footwear, player conditioning,  all different. And there is now a ridiculous notion that a 22 year old footballer in in his prime when in reality they arecall still kids and kids break. There is a reason why there are so many non contact injuries throughout football now.

Almost every team are struggling with numerous injuries, especially those in Europe.  You could argue that Liverpool are faring slightly better but their average player age is higher. Even Man City are often coming up short now they are missing more players.

Petrovic gained the plaudits last night, the save that won it was a fine save. The heroes though were our penalty takers, all unstoppable, possibly the finest set we’ve had in a shootout.

4 hours ago, Bebe1980 said:

Let's hope he keeps (no pun intended) his job... looks to be a much safer pair of hands than Sanchez.

4 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

If we were scoring goals then yes but we make ourselves very vulnerable to set pieces with both Gusto and Maatsen in the team. 
 

It would work better with 3 CB’s I reckon and them as wing backs.

People may think it overly cautious but surely its the natural formation currently given the personnel available. An over abundance of CBs and two small, fast, attacking FBs. Disasi, Silva and Colwill as CBs with Gusto RWB and Maatsen LWB seems logical currently.  Of they will have to tuck in as well if we lose a midfielder to compensate but it is still using players in their accustomed roles.

I think we were a bit disorganized in the 2-3 times they had something BUT in a bigger picture they had absolutely nothing. 73% possession although it means jack sh*t if you are like us and can't really produce anything inside opponent box. Credit to our work rate and Conor was the image of that brand of football. 

I saw Newcastle win PSG at their place not too long ago and we gave this team nothing. 

My concern is when we have the chance to have this amount of possession we do nothing with it for our attack. We defend well with the ball but we still made Dubravka pretty much a man without a job.

Anyway good feeling after the game. Not too many of these this season so we need to enjoy it while we can. 

2 wins in a row by the way. Not sure if we had that this season. 

https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/chelsea-ratings-vs-newcastle-mudryk-28320286

10 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I am getting to the point where I cannot watch the punditry on TV anymore.

Absolute c**ts taking total arse gravy. The narrative is becoming fking embarrassing now.

Shay Given talking about Newcastles poor bench with 2 keepers and just kids. In other words exactly the same as our bench you mindless tw@t

I was sat there waiting for someone to interject and point out that we've got a massive injury list too, but of course they all just nodded and agreed with Shay that poor Newcastle were up against it and put up a valiant effort against big bad Chelsea

Take aways from last nights game? 

We have a player in gusto. Left or right back he looks more than capable of taking Jame's spot full time should he not go down with the Chelsea injury plague. We need to find Gusto's deputy. 

Petrovic is the new number one keeper. 

Palmer should have the team built around his talent as we did with Hazard 

Im super critical of silva but he looked imperious last night. half tempted to hope the club offer another year. 

the club dropped a massive clanger in letting Livramento move on a few years back. I would certainly look at retaining Lewis Hall and developing him for a left sided role. 

Big fan of both Broja and Jackson, both bring merit to the side if not regular goals just yet. they need to keep plugging away at their respective games. 

I think last nights result was hugely positive. We will drop many more points between now and end of season, but if you can't see shoots of development in this side, the way it retains the ball and passes it around, its on you to open your eyes. We didnt look like we did under potter or lamps. Credit to the poch. 

Improvements?

intensity. If the entire team can play with Gallaghers intensity, top four/ title run within a couple of seasons. Players are still getting used to each others wavelengths and we still look a little bereft of goal scoring nouse. Again, think the current set of player we have will improve. I dont see a need for any January signings. Poch has gotten into this lot, things are taking shape. 

Only into the semis but it's a big step in the right direction. 

 

3 hours ago, erskblue said:

 

 

Genuinely interested to see the players reaction to his save last night. watch the player reaction again, and after we score goals, its still all disjointed but reckon this keeper is liked at the club... probably a wall banger crazy as all top keepers are in the making. we need to forge a team spirit, a new crazy gang... 

 

 

Oh and finally before you all slip into your graves with boredom reading my bull... 

I loved seeing the Chelsea players bang up for it. loved seeing Connors stud rake of the Achilles, players getting up in faces, it felt good to see players showing some fight and pride in the shirt.