Chelsea lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with Cucurella back in the side, Chalobah having a run in the team, and Gallagher is still available after a reported illness in the week. Newcastle kept their usual fully strengthened team.
Chelsea built up in their usual 4-2 shape, if you include GK, 5-2 or 3-4. Any which way you can put it. Chelsea intended to pass out of the back. It also looked like it was a 3-2 in settled possession.
It seems the plan was to be flexible to allow Enzo to drop deep to receive the ball in the left-back spot and Cucurella to go higher to receive. But when he did that it meant no central support for Caicedo and the distances were large between the lines at times. Newcastle did well to suffocate us at times because they planned to press really high themselves.
The times when the team dropped deep in numbers it worked well, like for the first goal we played out of the back but the way Palmer drops into the half-space with Enzo and Caicedo in the middle and even Gallagher when we need him, should be consistent in every build-up. It’s usually not consistent.
Newcastle built up with a 4-2 that turned into a 3-2 with Liveramento inverting into midfield creating the space for Almiron to receive the ball, and then trying to make third-man runs in behind Chelsea's backline to make it look like a 3-1-6.
Newcastle planned to create overloads on Chelsea's wings with that 3-1-6 and create a 2v1 situation that they can use to get balls into the box/or have multiple players making in-seam runs. It was more prevalent on Chelsea's left side. Howe wanted Longstaff and Livramento, who inverted a lot, to try to ghost in behind Chelsea's pockets with runs in behind. Chelsea covered it well.
It worked a treat in the reverse fixture as it exposed Cucurella with Sterling's work rate. Cucurella was constantly left in 2v1 situations. Enzo had to vacate Central areas to help Cucurella when he could.
Howe, in the first half, had to switch Gordon and Almiron because of how well Gusto was handling Gordon. The same thing still happened to Almiron on Gusto's side. Newcastle’s plan remained the same trying to cause overloads.
What wasn’t helping the situation was that our pressing was poor. We stepped off regularly and although we tried to press in a 4-1-4-1/4-4-2, the distances between the lines were too big and the defenders didn’t push up.
Chelsea never really looked to press aggressively but was it also because they also want to leverage our strengths on transitions?
We still created our best chances when we were running at an unsettled Newcastle defence, winning the ball deep and counter-pressing in the 2nd half and trying to play out for the back when we did it well.
Then another strength in attack that we need to highlight is the connection of Palmer and Gusto. The understanding of those two is extremely high. Both know which positions to occupy, if one is in the half-space, the other is out wide, if one is in a 1v1 attacking situation, the other knows when to make an over/underlapping run. It’s no surprise we focused our attacks on the right.
As the game progressed and the build-up wasn’t as successful, Chelsea were more content to mix up the play and send the ball long on goal kicks too. But Chelsea handled 2nd balls much better than in previous games. They still kept playing out when the ball was recycled back from midfield and seemed more successful with those build-ups.
Something to credit the team for was how we approached duels. Chelsea were aggressive in duels and won more duels than Newcastle, we matched their intensity on and off the ball. Something we were able to do better than we did away at Newcastle. We won 57 to their 51 duels.
After Sterling got the yellow card in the 39th minute. Poch immediately moved Gallagher to the Left side to help Cucurella defend against the 2v1s for very apparent reasons - to stop the 2v1 and risk of Sterling getting a 2nd yellow, that’s better proactive thinking from Poch there. We then looked like a 4-2-3-1/4442 (4222) still but Sterling is central behind/beside Jackson. The change was immediately effective, stopping Newcastle from exploiting our left side again.
But as has been the theme this season for us. We fell into our web of needless individual mistakes that ended up costing us the Newcastle goal before halftime. Multiple mistakes of doing things in positions where it isn’t necessary or failing to clear their lines 3 times from Enzo, Gusto and Chalobah.
Newcastle in the 2nd half also focused on using transitions to try to attack and get chances using our will to go forward. But they were well handled, no big chance was created from them, and we managed to turn them into counter-attacks of our own.
It was a period of sustained pressure in the 2nd half that got us back into the game. I would love to see that so much more. Counter-pressing to pin Newcastle in their half, and attacking intent until Enzo found Palmer in the Right Half-Space where he unleashed a venomous shot (where I mentioned he’s best).
In all, taking our chances from transitions won us the game. Another thing we can give the team credit for is the better intensity we played in the 2nd half than how we have been doing. We still have lots of work to do as we can still play much better, but what’s important now is getting points, and we have winnable home games in our next 3 games - Leicester, Burnley and Man Utd. To get into Europe we need to win all 3.
Seun
Excellent analysis; I was lucky enough to be invited to the game at the Bridge -I found your analysis very consistent to how I saw the game. Cucurella was much better than being given credit for (however his mistake for Newcastle's 2nd goal was stupid particularly in that part of the box). In fact it was Cucurella's constant harassing and coverage that helped build a good platform for taking the pressure off our defence and midfield on the left side.
Seun always look forward to reading your articles 😁👍👍