Coach’s Corner: Breaking Down the Newcastle v Chelsea Match from Saturday

Let’s take an in-depth look at the game between Newcastle on Chelsea last weekend, and find out just how Chelsea managed to finish as three-goal winners despite not being at their best on the day.

How They Lined Up

Chelsea

Chelsea lined up in a loose 3-4-3/5-2-3 formation, with Chillwell and James acting as wing-backs on either flank and Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech playing supporting roles to them and also Havertz in the centre. Havertz was free to drop deep into a false 9 role, giving Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech more space to operate higher up the pitch, but spent the majority of the game spearheading a front three.

Chelsea’s game plan relied on the wing-backs getting forward and supporting the attack as much as possible, overloading the flanks by linking up with one of the second strikers and creating opportunities or creating space on the opposite flank. Meanwhile, their central midfield two of Kante and Jorginho rotated as support for the overloads and as a central pivot, causing additional problems for Newcastle’s defenders while also offering a central option for Chelsea’s players looking to play flank to flank.

Newcastle

Newcastle started off with a 5-3-2 formation, with two strikers intended to cause problems for Chelsea’s back three. Their tactics involved getting the ball forward quickly to the flanks in order to try and take advantage of the space left by Chelsea’s advancing wing backs. In defence, their back five matched Chelsea’s front three and two advanced wing-backs man for man, while their central three gave them a man advantage in central midfield.

First Half: Not Enough Pressure on Chelsea’s Defence

Newcastle started off on the front foot, getting the ball forward quickly and looking to play off the second ball. This was successful in the second minute, when their front two managed to drag Chelsea’s back three out of position and they took advantage of the space between the centre-back and right wing back to overload the Chelsea defence and put in a dangerous cross. However, for much of the first half Newcastle struggled to replicate this, with poor distribution from Darlow giving the strikers no chance to pressure the Chelsea defence and a very low block combined with poor use of possession preventing them from counterattacking from open play.

At the start of the season, I read a comment on the design of Newcastle’s new shirts that stated they looked like they were all wearing the number 4. Honestly, they lived up to their image as a team of number 4’s throughout most of the first half, as they played with two lines of 5 behind the ball at times in an attempt to suffocate Chelsea in the final third.

Up until the 42^nd minute, Chelsea enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and restricted Newcastle to rare opportunities from free-kicks. They stuck to their game plan of trying to overload Newcastle’s flanks, with James, Ziyech, and Kante in particular seeing a lot of the ball and enjoying limited success down the right flank.

When they were unable to work the ball into a favourable position, they circulated to the opposite flank, stretching the Newcastle defence as much as they could, and trying to catch them out when attempting to overload. However, Newcastle dealt with this well and were quick to shuffle across to cover the circulation.

29' Ziyech curls the ball into the net from the edge of the box but it's flagged for offside.

[0-0]#NEWCHE // #NUFC

— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 30, 2021

When Chelsea did change it up, they caught out the Newcastle defence and Ziyech managed to find the net from an offside position. I believe that Chelsea unknowingly “conditioned” the Newcastle to shuffle across whenever they circulated the ball, which meant that when they moved the ball from right to left and then quickly back to the right again it caught the Newcastle defence off guard.

This pattern of overloading the wings and circulating the ball continued throughout the first half, and I felt that Chelsea should have had one of their centre-backs push on much more. We saw a couple of marauding runs from Rudiger but for the most part the Chelsea back three were playing on the half-way line marking fresh air, since Newcastle were sitting so deep.

This deep Newcastle line saw their two strikers effectively playing in a traditional defensive midfield position, only about 10 yards in front of their own penalty box. Thanks to this, Newcastle struggled to get the ball forward quickly as their game plan required, and when they did get up the pitch, they ended up with their strikers either 2v3 or 2v5 up against Chelsea’s defence.

In addition, Chelsea had clearly identified Saint-Maximin as Newcastle’s biggest threat, and the lack of attacking support offered by Newcastle’s deep setup allowed Chelsea to double and even triple up on him whenever he got on the ball.

Despite this, Newcastle ended the half strongly and managed to create a 2v1 situation on the left flank after quickly recycling the ball from a cleared free-kick and they created a good opportunity. They also managed to play out quickly from the left back position a couple of minutes later, finally finding Saint-Maximin in a promising position until he was sandwiched by Jorginho and Cristensen.

Second Half: Better from Newcastle, but Goals from Chelsea

Despite the eventual scoreline, Newcastle played much better in the second half and clearly managed to take advantage of the break to better understand and solidify their game plan. Kante picked up a booking on 53 minutes after Newcastle managed to catch Reece James out of position high up the pitch and Kante was forced to bring down Ryan Fraser who had a clear run to the byline ahead of him.

Saint-Maximin pulled out to the wings, mainly the right, and caused Chelsea plenty of problems in the space between the centre-back and wing back, but Newcastle were ultimately unable to capitalise on their advanced positions.

Newcastle 0-1 Chelsea

Unfortunately for Newcastle, Chelsea got the breakthrough in the 65^th minute just after bringing on Barkley and Loftus-Cheek. Loftus-Cheek was brought on for his late surging runs into the box and the added threat he offers in the middle thanks to his height advantage. This was a factor in the goal just a minute later, as Hudson-Odoi made a run down the left of the Newcastle box that took out 2 Newcastle defenders and put in a cross. With Loftus-Cheek joining Havertz and Barkley in the centre, Newcastle were outnumbered and left Reece James unmarked at the back post to finish. Having run into the box from deep, Loftus-Cheek lost his marker which meant the Newcastle left back had to shuffle over to cover him in the centre, leaving James free. It was a great finish from James, but the disorganisation in the Newcastle defence led to him having the time and space needed to pull it off.

Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea

After the introduction of Loftus-Cheek, James found himself unmarked on several occasions during the second half, and his second goal was another example of Chelsea looking to overload the flanks. Havertz pulled out to the left, and when Barkley picked up the ball in the centre he was surrounded by three defenders. After the ball is circulated over to the right, James plays the ball back in to the advancing Loftus-Cheek and gets lucky with the rebound, managing to slot it home. Despite getting some luck with the rebound, the chance was created thanks to Chelsea’s work down the opposite wing and the support provided by Loftus-Cheek.

Newcastle 0-3 Chelsea

Chelsea’s third goal, a penalty from Jorginho, was a result of really poor defending from Newcastle. Barkley picked the ball up in the centre of the pitch, around 40 yards from goal, and was afforded the time and space to slide a through ball forward to Havertz. Havertz himself was left between two defenders, managing to run through one-one-one with the goalkeeper Darlow and drawing the foul. With this simple pass and run, two Chelsea players managed to take 8 Newcastle players out of the game and create a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. This was obviously exacerbated by Newcastle’s energy levels being down after chasing the ball for 80 minutes, as evidenced by all three central midfielders being replaced, as well as the previous two goals knocking their confidence, but it was a shame for Newcastle as they were actually relatively solid up until that point.

Had Newcastle managed to adapt better in the first half, or had a lucky bounce when they created their chances it might have been a very different story, but ultimately Chelsea took their chances when they were presented to them and that clinical edge was the difference that separated the two teams.