Chelsea’s top four hopes suffered another setback while Newcastle’s European ambitions were boosted tonight at St. James’ Park.
The Magpies grabbed their fifth consecutive victory in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Chelsea to go third.
Following two league defeats in a row against Brighton and Arsenal, Graham Potter desperately needed to get his team back to winning ways which would have eased the pressure on him.
Surprisingly, Potter left an experienced striker like Aubameyang on the bench in a match he needed to win and instead opted for Broja to lead the line for Chelsea.
This single decision backfired as Chelsea struggled to create something in front of goal in the first half.
After the break, Newcastle piled more pressure on Chelsea and deservedly took the lead through Joe Willock whose curling shot won the game for the hosts.
Despite going a goal down, Chelsea posed little threat to their opponent, with legendary commentator Peter Drury summing up The Blues’ lacklustre performance with these words –“Graham Potter’s Chelsea is playing a new kind of pressing football called Depressing”.
The World Cup break will offer Potter a timely opportunity to go back to the drawing board and find out where it all went wrong for him.
