Newcastle United 2-0 Chelsea, League Cup: Post-match reactions, reviews

After Sunday's Premier League game in the League Cup, a fully rotated Chelsea side faced a semi-rotated Newcastle side this evening and the hosts came out of the blocks better and looked to make up for their defeat at the Bridge.

The Blues suffered an early disappointment when Joelinton inexplicably hit the post while the goal was wide, but we found it difficult to deal with Newcastle's enthusiastic pressing. And as often seen and even more often feared, we were the architects of our own downfall, turning the ball over in a terrible area to give Alexander Isak the easiest of chances and then doubling our deficit through equally terrible defending that led to it Axel Disasi brings the ball into his own goal.

Chelsea were not without their dangers, but we wasted enormously when our chances came. And that was doubly true as we missed a number of excellent chances in the opening minutes of the second half as we tried to get back into the game – Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku in particular had some extremely frustrating misses .

Newcastle created some danger on the counterattack (and set pieces), but their main focus was to weather the Chelsea storm and when they did, the final 20-25 minutes of the game were largely smooth sailing for them. Maresca decided against making too many changes, presumably to save the stages for the weekend and see if the “B” team players could get it done. Obviously not.

So if Newcastle reach the quarter-finals we will be eliminated in the fourth round for the fifth time in the last decade.

Carefree.

• Not a good audition for most of the “B” team
• For the first time since the opening game of the season, we haven't scored a goal in 14 games
• Newcastle's defenders are absolute shooting magnets with countless blocks
• Disasi at right-back, with neither James nor Gusto in the squad
• Newcastle led 2-0 at half-time after a shot on goal
• Next up: Manchester United (and presumably their new manager) are away on Saturday
• KTBFFH

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