Newcastle United were able to take advantage of Manchester City’s slip up after beating Chelsea 2-0 at St James’ Park.
City drew 0-0 with Southampton on Saturday, giving Chelsea or Newcastle the chance to move up to third in the Premier League table.
And it was Newcastle who managed to make Pep Guardiola’s side pay after beating Chelsea 2-0. They took an early lead through Sandro Tonali before Nicolas Jackson made things easier for them after getting himself sent off. A screamer from Bruno Guimaraes then sealed the game.
The Chelsea Chronicle has now rated each Blues player following their clash at St James’ Park.
Robert Sanchez: 5/10
Had to go long at times because of Newcastle’s press, which saw Chelsea give the ball away. Overall, Robert Sanchez‘s kicking was very poor.
Moises Caicedo: 5/10
Was really aggressive in the first half, maybe a bit too aggressive! Moises Caicedo made quite a few fouls, being a bit overzealous when trying to win the ball back.
Trevoh Chalobah: 7/10
Started off a bit shaky but Trevoh Chalobah grew into the game and made some important defensive contributions.
Levi Colwill: 7/10
Defended well early in the game when Chelsea were on the ropes. Levi Colwill and Chalobah are developing into a nice central defensive partnership.
Marc Cucurella: 6/10
Had to do way more defending than he did against Liverpool. In the second half, Marc Cucurella provided a bit of a threat in attack but had no focal point to cross the ball to.
Romeo Lavia: 3/10
Robbed of possession for Newcastle’s opener and gave some fouls away. Romeo Lavia really could not cope with the pace of the game initially, which is not a surprise for someone who has missed so much football this season. Much better in the second half but the damage was already done at that point.
Enzo Fernandez: 5/10
Newcastle played through and around Enzo Fernandez too easily. Could not control the game alongside Lavia in the first 45 minutes but did start to get more of a grip of the match in the second half.
Fernandez found things difficult under Enzo Maresca at first, and that performance was a bit like when the Italian first arrived in west London.
Pedro Neto: 5/10
Did not do much but saw a good chance blocked towards the end of the first half and tried to use his pace when Chelsea counter-attacked. Corner taking was poor, however, and this was ultimately not Pedro Neto‘s best game in a Chelsea shirt.
Cole Palmer: 6/10
Was Chelsea’s most dangerous attacker and the few attacks that the team had, Cole Palmer was able to make the right choice in most instances. The lack of quality around him at times is worrying.
Chelsea target Liam Delap recently spoke about Palmer, hailing him as one of the best players in the world, but the 23-year-old was not able to show that at St James’ Park.
Noni Madueke: 4/10
Noni Madueke did not really get anywhere with his dribbling. The first time he has been ineffective on the left.
Nicolas Jackson: 1/10
Jackson lacked a bit of quality during one really promising attack in the first half before getting a ridiculous red card that could now end up costing Chelsea a place in the Champions League. Unforgivable.
Jadon Sancho: 6/10
Much more of a threat down the left compared to Madueke, Jadon Sancho was actually able to cause Newcastle defenders a few problems.
Reece James: 6/10
Reece James came on in the second half and did not do anything wrong. However, the Chelsea captain could not influence the game either.
Malo Gusto: N/A
