CHELSEA SHOW OFF THEIR POWER WITH CECH RECALL

NOT many sides, if any, could lose their first-choice goalkeeper and replace them with a Premier League and Champions League winner. But Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was able to hand Petr Cech (right) only his second league start of the season — with Thibaut Courtois struggling with a fractured finger — in their win against Newcastle. The club were keen to stress the injury sustained by Courtois in their defeat to Spurs would not have prevented him starting the match, but they were in the position of having a worldclass player in reserve. Were it not for Cech, who until this summer had been first-choice for a decade, Chelsea could easily have been behind before Oscar and Diego Costa scored either side of half-time to secure an awkward victory. Newcastle dominated the first half and when Remy Cabella was through on goal, Cech flung himself low to save a shot heading for the bottom-left corner. Mourinho fielded £12.5million defender Kurt Zouma with Gary Cahill struggling after the volume of games over the busy festive period. The club are confident of their squad depth after planning last summer to compete for the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup. ‘We have great faith in our squad,’ assistant manager Steve Holland explained. ‘When it was assembled at the start of the season, it was with the objective to compete for all four titles. ‘That makes it a 60-plus match season, which means you need a pool of players — 11 is not enough. The Newcastle game was a case of utilising that

pool.’ Meanwhile, Blues boss Mourinho endorsed counterpart John Carver, who has been in temporary charge of Newcastle since Alan Pardew left for Crystal Palace, during an exchange on the touchline. But Carver is yet to win in his three games in charge. They drew 3-3 with Burnley and were beaten by Leicester in the FA Cup before Saturday’s defeat at Stamford Bridge. Carver predicts he will know if he has got the Newcastle job on a permanent basis in a fortnight, adding: ‘What you have to bear in mind is that we’ve got Southampton next Saturday, then we are not playing the following week because we’re out of the FA Cup, so there is a little bit of time there. ‘It’s been two weeks now, so by the time that comes round, it will be a month. That is quite a long time to get ready to decide what you are going to do, so I think it should all be in place by then.’