At St James Park, on Sunday afternoon, Chelsea made it three wins out of three, against Newcastle United, as Maurizio Sarri’s side continued their 100% start to the season.
However, the game was far from being a classic with Rafael Benitez’s side intent on getting as many men behind the ball as they possibly could.
As a result, although Chelsea had 81% of the possession, chances were scarce.
With Eden Hazard making his first start of the season, Chelsea were looking towards the Belgian to break the deadlock but, on several occasions, Eden was the victim of bad challenges that left him wincing in pain.
Coming out for the second half with the game still at 0-0, the game meandered along the same path as that of the first half, but, around the 74th minute mark the deadlock was almost broken when Antonio Rudiger unleashed a shot from all of 25-yards that crashed against the crossbar.
Minutes later though the deadlock was broken when Schar was adjudged to have fouled Marcus Alonso in the penalty area. The decision may have been a little harsh but Hazard made no mistake from the penalty spot to put Chelsea ahead.
A goal down, Newcastle suddenly had to attack and they were to draw level when Yedlin provided a cross for Joselu to head home, although Chelsea were convinced that a free-kick should have been awarded before Yedlin delivered the cross as his flailing elbow clearly caught Giroud in the face.
With time running out Chelsea pushed for a late winner and it came after a free-kick was floated into the area, Alonso stabbed the ball forward and there was, of all people, Yedlin sticking a foot out to divert it into his own net, justice some might call it!
St James Park
Premier League
26/08/2018 5:00 pm
Attendance: 51791
Referee: Paul Tierney
| Newcastle United | Chelsea | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joselu (83) | Hazard pen (76), Yedlin og (87) | ||||||
| Dubravka | Arrizabalaga | ||||||
| Yedlin | Azpilicueta | ||||||
| Schar | 79 | David Luiz | |||||
| Fernandez | Rudiger | ||||||
| Clark | Alonso | ||||||
| Dummett | Jorginho | ||||||
| Diamé | Kante | ||||||
| Ritchie | Kovacic | 79 | |||||
| Ki Sung-yueng | Pedro | 69 | |||||
| Murphy | 73 | Morata | 65 | ||||
| Rondon | 62 | Hazard | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Darlow | Caballero | ||||||
| Muto | 79 | Zappacosta | |||||
| Joselu | 62 | Chrstensen | |||||
| Perez | 73 | Loftus-Cheek | |||||
| Sterry | Willian | 69 | |||||
| Atsu | Giroud | 65 | |||||
| Longstaff | Barkley | 79 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 6 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 2 | On Target | 3 |
| 4 | Corners | 5 |
| 16 | Fouls | 8 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 19 | % | 81 |