ST JAMES’ PARK — At the end of this fascinating game, when the blue wave that threatened to engulf Newcastle United finally subsided, the tannoy announcer cheekily played The Fratelli’s Chelsea Dagger for the buoyant home fans.
It was a low blow but felt appropriate. A cut and run job from Newcastle ended up with them plunging a knife through the Champions League chasing pack.
As imperfect as this performance was for large spells, it is a win that leaves them tantalisingly close to returning to European football’s elite and all the dividends they will bring.
RELIEF AT TYNESIDE
Bruno Guimarães doubles Newcastle Utd's lead, all but sealing the three points for the home side
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Given their goal difference, one win from their remaining two games against Arsenal and Everton will be enough.
While the scoreline looks comprehensive enough – their two blue riband midfielders bookending the win with goals at either end of the contest – the reality was different.
Defender Dan Burn was the black and white man of the match, first smothering Cole Palmer and then digging in to prevent the 10 men of Chelsea from finding a way through and hauling Newcastle back into the top five.
It is the kind of game that will make difficult viewing for Eddie Howe, a perfectionist by nature, who won’t have to look far for places where his side can improve.
Throughout the whole of the second half they were dragged into areas where Chelsea made hay, Alexander Isak looking so isolated that Newcastle were effectively playing with 10 men too.
Man of the match: Dan Burn
- What a performance from Newcastle’s centre-back this was. Did exactly the job Eddie Howe wanted from him.
But does it really matter at this stage of the season?
For all of their flaws here – some indicative of deeper issues that will need to be remedied in the transfer window – Howe has instilled a winning, big game culture that has Newcastle occupying rarefied air in the Premier League table.
Second place remains on for a manager who has wrung every last drop out of this group this year.
Arne Slot will probably get it but Howe deserves to be awarded manager of the year for what he has conjured at Newcastle.
The strategy here, to come out with all guns blazing, deploying Burn to hare after Palmer while Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes pressed Moises Caicedo, looked risky but paid off within seconds as Sandro Tonali plundered an opening goal from Jacob Murphy’s superb cross.
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When things got dicey in the second half, he must have looked at Enzo Maresca’s bench with envy.
Howe had two goalkeepers, an academy green horn and a striker heading for the exit door but shored things up with Lewis Miley and Emil Krafth, belatedly sent on to stop a rampaging Marc Cucurella.
Few could have foreseen how much Newcastle would be clinging on by the end.
Chelsea were largely poor in the first half, undermined by ill discipline when Nicolas Jackson aimed a forearm into Sven Botman that fully warranted the red card that John Brooks dished out after VAR sent him to the monitor.
But in the second half Newcastle lost control, receding into their own territory. At one point they surrendered 78 per cent of possession.
“They had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose,” Howe confessed.
He cited two fantastic saves from Nick Pope – from Cucurella and the excellent Enzo Fernandez – as key to the victory but they were also indebted to Chelsea’s loose finishing.
Perhaps earlier in the season there would be room for introspection at crawling over the line but not here. Newcastle are just 180 minutes from their best season for a century.
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