Chelsea coasted to a comfortable 3-1 victory over Newcastle, despite Dwight Gayle’s early opener, as the Magpies’ away day blues continued.
Chelsea began the game in the driving seat, controlling possession as Newcastle sat deep in the hope of using Gayle as an outlet on the break, and it was expected that Gayle’s isolation would play into Chelsea’s hands but early on that turned out not to be the case. A series of lucky bounces and deflections eventually saw Marcos Alonso under hit a flicked back pass to Thibaut Courtois who blocked it defiantly, only to see Gayle sweep in the rebound.
Newcastle remained defensive in their approach as they looked to ground out a result, but as was the case against Manchester United, a combination of poor defending and incisive attacking play saw them surrender another early lead away at a title contender. Eden Hazard once again stole the show and brought the sides level, hitting a volley into the ground and over Karl Darlow. Victor Moses, who had begun the game poorly then instigated Chelsea’s second goal with a driven cross into the path of Morata who took the pace out of the ball by nodding into an open net.
The second-half took a while to get going, with Chelsea not as direct as they were in the first 45 minutes, but a mistimed Matt Ritchie challenge on Victor Moses handed Hazard the chance to put the game beyond Newcastle – which he did with aplomb, confidently chipping a Panenka penalty into the goal.
