Rafa’s ‘parking the bus’ tactic backfires
Chelsea maintain their perfect start despite Newcastle’s negative approach
Plus Abramovich ready to sell stake in club
It may be only August, the season is still clunking through the gears, the sense of drama is yet to take a grip, but it did not feel like it in the North-east. This was a potentially crucial test passed by Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea in their emergence as title contenders again.
There are few more hospitable or friendly places in England than Newcastle-upon-tyne, but on a day like this, when late summer is so cold that it feels like winter, when the rain sweeps in off the North Sea horizontally and the team in blackand-white stripes are trying to suffocate you, it is horrible.
Sarri sensed it before he arrived, aware Chelsea had been beaten 3-0 at the same ground on the final day of last season, and he knew it from the moment he saw Newcastle would deploy a five-man defence, with four more defence-minded midfielders sitting in front of them.
The Italian may have had a brand of football named after him in Italy, “Sarri-ball”, but Rafael Benitez has always been more of a pragmatist than a stylist. The Newcastle manager knew how to make things difficult for Chelsea and his team sacrificed attacking endeavour for defensive resolve.
For all the criticism this might attract from those who hold on to a more romantic ideal of how a Newcastle team should play at home, it almost worked perfectly.
Newcastle were determined to stifle and disrupt, squeezing the space in the final third so that Chelsea were forced to go sideways and backwards in search of an opening. They had to be patient, they had to probe and prod, they had to make the most of the few chances that came their way.
Even after taking the lead with a controversial second-half penalty, Chelsea had to delve deep.
Their opening goal came when Fabian Schar was judged to have brought down Marcos Alonso inside the area, even though replays showed that he had got to the ball first, knocking it away before making contact with the Chelsea player.
Newcastle had rarely threatened to score, lacking the numbers in open play, while Chelsea defended set-pieces solidly, but they equalised with seven minutes remaining when substitute Joselu darted in front of a static David Luiz and glanced a header inside the near post from Deandre Yedlin’s cross.
Given how well Newcastle had defended up until that point, a draw seemed certain, only for Chelsea to snatch a winner, Yedlin slicing an attempted clearance of a weak shot from Alonso into his own net. If that was fortuitous, you could also argue that a team who have 81 per cent of possession away from home tend to make their own luck.
“We knew that here would be difficult, especially for us, but also every team,” said Sarri. “Chelsea lost here last season, so did Manchester United and Arsenal. It is not easy to play here against this opponent.
“This game was much more difficult [than against Huddersfield and Arsenal].
In Italy, I had never seen Rafa play with five defenders, so compact, defend so deep. We had to move the ball very fast, but it was hard. To win here is dif- ficult, difficult for every team, so we have to be pleased. To draw with five minutes to go would have been tough, but this team [Newcastle] are very strong from a character point of view. It is an important test for us to pass.”
Asked what it meant to be joint top of the table, with maximum points from his first three games, Sarri replied: “It means nothing, the league season is 38 games, so after three, the league table is not important. It was just important to start the season well.”
Although Antonio Rudiger had rattled the crossbar with a 30-yard strike, the game really swung in Chelsea’s favour only with the penalty decision. Until then, Newcastle contained them well with a blanket defence that even controlled Eden Hazard, regardless of how well he danced between the lines.
However, while television replays showed Schar had got the ball before making contact with Alonso, it is still not certain referee Paul Tierney would have changed his mind if he had seen them. It was one of those calls so open to interpretation that the official may well have stuck with his original decision, if only because the defender was stretching to reach the ball from behind the attacking player.
It was always a risky tackle and Hazard clinically converted the penalty as the Newcastle players continued to complain.
Their sense of injustice was eased when Joselu headed them level, Chelsea complaining that Olivier Giroud had been elbowed in the buildup, but the visitors continued to push for a winner and got it through the softest of own goals.
Three games, three wins for Sarri. Chelsea are back in business.
Newcastle are back wondering exactly where their first victory will come from.