Newcastle send Chelsea man into angry meltdown and 'hostile' change will trouble Arsenal
A fast start. That's what Eddie Howe demanded from his players. Boy did the Newcastle United boss get it. With 26 minutes on the clock, the Magpies were 2-0 up against much-changed Chelsea at a rocking St James' Park.
"We have experienced that before here where you get momentum," Howe told reporters. "It's such a force. It's so difficult for teams. I've been a team coming here playing against it.
"We haven't had that this season due to our own performances and we need to try and get that back because it can make the difference."
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That's for sure. Following a couple of quieter games at St James', Lloyd Kelly said the players knew they had to 'get the crowd going' under the lights because 'it's something special and puts teams on the back foot'. The result? A 'hostile environment' in the words of Chelsea midfielder Renato Veiga.
Newcastle signalled their intent from the off. Remarkably, there were just 32 seconds on the clock when Anthony Gordon clattered into Benoit Badiashile to loud cheers. It set the tone.
When Filip Jorgensen took his first goal kick a couple of minutes later, Joelinton and Alexander Isak were prowling on the edge of the area, waiting for the Chelsea goalkeeper to go short to Badiashile inside the area. Badiashile managed to get the ball out of the box to Cucurella on the left flank, but Gordon again got across and the ball went out of play. That was the cue for the England international to wave his arms up and down to whip the crowd up.
It was not just Gordon hunting Chelsea players down. Mykhailo Mudryk was ushered towards his own goal by Joelinton and when the Chelsea forward attempted to find Axel Disasi deep inside the visitors' half, Lewis Hall got to the ball ahead of his man. Chelsea won the throw-in but by the time the ball went back to Jorgensen, the Blues' goalkeeper nervously kicked it out of play to ironic cheers after being put under pressure by Isak.
Chelsea began to settle, and dominated possession, but Newcastle continued to press high up the pitch. It paid off spectacularly midway through the first half when Badisahile played a hospital pass to Veiga, who was facing his own goal on the edge of the visitors' box. Joelinton knocked Veiga over and Sandro Tonali immediately hooked the ball into the path of Isak, who finished expertly. Disasi could not hide his anger as the Frenchman threw his arms up, jumped on the spot and roared in frustration.
It was a crucial goal. You previously had to go back to April for the last time Newcastle had scored inside the opening half-an-hour at St James' and, home or away, the Magpies had only broken the deadlock in four of their previous 11 games in all competitions this season.
For context, Newcastle scored first in seven of their opening 11 fixtures last season. The black-and-whites also bagged six goals in the opening 30 minutes in the same period.
Striking first against Chelsea relatively early on was particularly important following a run of five games without a win in the Premier League. The noise levels went up inside the stadium and the energy of the crowd gave the players a shot in the arm as they continued to swarm Chelsea.
In fact, from the resulting restart, Chelsea were forced all the way back and Jorgensen played the ball to Veiga, who was facing his goal once again, on the edge of the box. Veiga managed to turn away from Joe Willock, but the Portuguese could only fire the ball straight at Gordon. Although Enzo Fernandez won the second ball, Joelinton then nipped in and passed it to Tonali, whose effort whistled just wide of the post.
The much-changed visitors, who have the youngest side in the Premier League, looked a little shell-shocked. Christopher Nkunku even made a needless foul on Lloyd Kelly just inside the visitors' half, which proved costly in the 26th minute.
Hall motioned to swing the ball into the box, but the former Chelsea defender instead played a quick free-kick down the left channel to Isak. It was from Isak's deflected cross that Willock flicked the ball on and Disasi put through his own net to double Newcastle's lead.
The game was far from over - not yet, anyway - but Chelsea were ultimately unable to recover after being taken apart by two quickfire goals in the space of just three minutes. Next up? Arsenal. At home. You suspect the Gunners know what's coming.