Sunday 26th August - Newcastle 1-2 Chelsea

[Dr. Gonzo]

Holy shit those defenders should be ashamed of themselves, unbelievable.

[Bluewolf]

Not rating this 'Sarri ball' at all...  

2-1

SARRI BALL!!!! SARRI BALL!!!! 

[Stan]

That's an own goal. Alonso shouldn't get the credit (or the points for Fantasy League).

[Bluewolf]

Quick... bring a defender on.. 

[Cicero]

5 minutes 

[Stan]

how have 3 goals come out of that after a shite 75 mins  

[Redcanuck]

6 minutes ago, Stan said:

That's an own goal. Alonso shouldn't get the credit (or the points for Fantasy League).

He gets an assist on an own goal.  Two assists today, highest scoring defender in the game.

[Cicero]

3 points at a ground we are terrible in. 

Matching the highest ever premier league possession record. 

9/9 points. 

2nd in the league. 

Great end to the weekend. Love Sarri ball. 

[Bluewolf]

Well.. 

Didn't look like we would score at all and then we did... Didn't think we would concede in the last 10 minutes and we did... Didn't think we would get back in front but we did... 

Was hoping we could get the win.... and we did!! 

[Cicero]

86 - Jorginho completed 86 passes out of a possible 92 in the first half (93.5%), 19 more than the whole Newcastle side combined (67)

[Honey Honey]

Disgraceful tactics. Absolute disgrace. Would love to hear what the fuck the thinking behind that was. We beat this lot 3-0 a few months ago, we had a half decent effort against Spurs so wtf are we setting up like Andorra for? At home ffs.

Horrible approach to the game. Absolutely rank.

[Bluewolf]

1 hour ago, Harvsky said:

Disgraceful tactics. Absolute disgrace. Would love to hear what the fuck the thinking behind that was. We beat this lot 3-0 a few months ago, we had a half decent effort against Spurs so wtf are we setting up like Andorra for? At home ffs.

Horrible approach to the game. Absolutely rank.

You showed after going a goal behind that you had the ability to get a result by getting yourselves back in it so it did seem like an unnecessary and ultra defensive game plan from the off... Didn't expect that to be honest.. thought the game would be more open.. 

[True Blue]

Good win, was bound to have one after fucking 2011. Controlled the game but with very little clear chances. Deserved the win i think, Yedlin elbows Giroud and assists for the equalizer, then scores an own goal. Three out of three can be only pleased, still far from some sexy football, but the footy overall much more watchable than with Conte. Saying all that it was a boring game for the neutrals apart from them final 15 minutes.

[SirBalon]

Chelsea getting those results coming in while Sarri beds into the club and gets the team understanding that they're allowed to play football after so many years of being shackled to the black board.  These early points could be telling after Christmas.

[Bluewolf]

Maurizio Sarri spoke glowingly about Rafael Benitez before the game, saying the Spaniard set the foundations for him to be successful when he took the Napoli job.

But Sarri has just said he "has never seen" a Benitez side set up with five at the back, like Newcastle did today.

On Chelsea's penalty: "I don’t know I was far from the incident and I am not the referee, and I don’t want to be a referee either. 

[Julio Geordio]

2 hours ago, Cicero said:

86 - Jorginho completed 86 passes out of a possible 92 in the first half (93.5%), 19 more than the whole Newcastle side combined (67)

 You're American 

[Cicero]

3 hours ago, Redcanuck said:

He gets an assist on an own goal.  Two assists today, highest scoring defender in the game.

Hes looked better in a possession minded side, however against the likes of Liverpool and City they will still most likely target him. Defensively he is suspect.

That said, hes done very well this season. Second half against Arsenal I thought he was brilliant on both ends. 

[Honey Honey]

4 hours ago, Bluewolf said:

You showed after going a goal behind that you had the ability to get a result by getting yourselves back in it so it did seem like an unnecessary and ultra defensive game plan from the off... Didn't expect that to be honest.. thought the game would be more open.. 

Rafa has said the approach was due to the key players being out. Basically he shat himself and has no confidence in what was available. Still think it was unnecessarily over the top and the changes weren't all that either. 2nd half we were even worse than 1st, I thought at 60-70 mins surely we'd now go 4-2-3-1 but no. Perez came on the wing 

This is going to be a long road to January.

 

[RandoEFC+]

You could tell way before the team sheets were announced that Rafa was going to do this. He needs to set up to be defensive against this Chelsea side, but the extent to which he's done it is a clear as day "look at what I have to do because I can't sign any players" middle finger to the ownership. While the approach will rightly have pissed off the fans there's some sympathy in the long run that it was really another dig at the ownership. The last thing you want is Rafa becoming a yes man to Mike Ashley (which he never will) and obviously there are better ways of making his point than setting up like that today but ultimately today's result isn't what will define Newcastle's season.

Chelsea's defence still has some question marks there. Is David Luiz really the guy or a short term fix? Because his attempt to defend that cross for Newcastle's equaliser was beyond dreadful and could have cost his team two points.

I don't think I'm going to enjoy the Jorginho adulation this season either. Yes, a very neat and tidy footballer who will have great passing stats and actually manages to pass the ball forward too and plays an important role for his team, but it already smells like one of those situations where every journalist and statistician in football is falling over each other to tweet out his pass completion rate and how his contribution goes under the radar because it's not obvious when in actual fact it's not going under the radar at all as it's going to get rubbed in everyone's face for the first few months of the season. *Has flashbacks of Joe Allen and Leon Britton at Swansea and Nemanja Matic when he joined United last season and suddenly became the best defensive midfielder in Europe for a few weeks*

[Spike]

Almos busted a blood vessel listening to the commentary of this one. One fella went on a four minute soapbox on how it wasn't penalty because the defender 'got' the ball (which is debatable how in control of the ball he was) and that because the he touched the ball it couldn't have been a foul. Where do they find these people? He doesn't even know the rules of the sport. He didn't mention once how Giroud was elbowed in the face for the equaliser though. So he showed his ineptitude calling a game.

[Cicero]

6 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

You could tell way before the team sheets were announced that Rafa was going to do this. He needs to set up to be defensive against this Chelsea side, but the extent to which he's done it is a clear as day "look at what I have to do because I can't sign any players" middle finger to the ownership. While the approach will rightly have pissed off the fans there's some sympathy in the long run that it was really another dig at the ownership. The last thing you want is Rafa becoming a yes man to Mike Ashley (which he never will) and obviously there are better ways of making his point than setting up like that today but ultimately today's result isn't what will define Newcastle's season.

Chelsea's defence still has some question marks there. Is David Luiz really the guy or a short term fix? Because his attempt to defend that cross for Newcastle's equaliser was beyond dreadful and could have cost his team two points.

I don't think I'm going to enjoy the Jorginho adulation this season either. Yes, a very neat and tidy footballer who will have great passing stats and actually manages to pass the ball forward too and plays an important role for his team, but it already smells like one of those situations where every journalist and statistician in football is falling over each other to tweet out his pass completion rate and how his contribution goes under the radar because it's not obvious when in actual fact it's not going under the radar at all as it's going to get rubbed in everyone's face for the first few months of the season. *Has flashbacks of Joe Allen and Leon Britton at Swansea and Nemanja Matic when he joined United last season and suddenly became the best defensive midfielder in Europe for a few weeks*

Maybe because there isnt a player like him in the league? 

[RandoEFC+]

Just now, Cicero said:

Maybe because there isnt a player like him in the league? 

Who are you referring to?

[Cicero]

Just now, RandoEFC said:

Who are you referring to?

Jorginho

[RandoEFC+]

Just now, Cicero said:

Jorginho

I should have known somebody would get defensive over that comment.

To be clear, I'm not actually making a comment on Jorginho's ability. From what I've seen he's pretty good but I've not seen enough to make a detailed evaluation of his skills.

My comment is more to take the piss out of all the people who think they're being really insightful on Twitter by going on about Jorginho's pass completion after every Chelsea game as if they're the only person watching the game clever enough to pay attention to things other than shots and goals and maybe possession. They think they have a footballing IQ of over 9,000.

[Cicero]

5 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I should have known somebody would get defensive over that comment.

To be clear, I'm not actually making a comment on Jorginho's ability. From what I've seen he's pretty good but I've not seen enough to make a detailed evaluation of his skills.

My comment is more to take the piss out of all the people who think they're being really insightful on Twitter by going on about Jorginho's pass completion after every Chelsea game as if they're the only person watching the game clever enough to pay attention to things other than shots and goals and maybe possession. They think they have a footballing IQ of over 9,000.

Who's getting defensive? Just pointing out a reason as to why the likes of Sky and other journos are praising over his performances. There isn't a player like him in the league. 

It's not just the statistics, you just have to watch how instrumental he is for us and the way we play. The most important and influential player we have in this system similar to Kante under Conte.