{"id":34279,"date":"2023-05-28T18:39:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T18:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=34279"},"modified":"2023-05-28T18:39:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T18:39:37","slug":"chelsea-drew-1-1-with-newcastle-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/05\/28\/chelsea-drew-1-1-with-newcastle-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea drew 1-1 with Newcastle United"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While the players of\u00a0Newcastle United stood in front of the noisy band of travelling supporters and celebrated qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 2002, their counterparts in blue made a slightly sheepish beat around the Stamford Bridge pitch and wondered what comes next after the season from hell finally came to an end.
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The immediate answer was a fond farewell to Frank Lampard after his unsatisfactory stint as caretaker ended in a lively 1-1 draw with Newcastle. Yet in the longer term,\u00a0Chelsea\u00a0know they are in for a long rebuild. They have finished in the bottom half for the first time since 1996 and their owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, will have little to celebrate when they mark the one-year anniversary of their takeover of the club tomorrow. Even news of Mauricio Pochettino signing his deal to become Chelsea\u2019s new manager will have to be checked against the reality that the months ahead could be long, painful and extremely costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Abdoulaye<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before kick-off there was the faint whiff of embarrassment as Chelsea handed out their end of season awards. There was Thiago Silva doing his best to look pleased as he held up his gong for player of the year. There was Lampard in full ambassadorial mode as he posed alongside Conor Gallagher, recipient of a hotly contested goal of the season award. There was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang mooching down the touchline after once again failing to make it into the matchday squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the reminders of Chelsea\u2019s waste, though, there were a few notes of promise. Lewis Hall, such an enterprising presence at left-back, was a worthy winner of the young player of the year award. Near the tunnel, meanwhile, a few young fans pleaded with the injured Mason Mount to sign their gear. The past clashed with the present, and the future felt uncertain. Yes, Mount is likely to leave this summer. Equally news of Pochettino putting pen to paper on a three-year deal was cause for excitement and, while there is understandable anger within the fanbase at Chelsea\u2019s struggles under their new ownership, the home fans had still arrived intent on seeing Lampard off in style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least nobody can erase memories of Chelsea\u2019s glorious past. At one corner of the ground they held aloft a lovely banner honouring the club\u2019s legendary full-back, C\u00e9sar Azpilicueta, who will surely move on this summer. Chelsea, as the crowd were quick to point out, have won it all. They will hope this is just a blip. Ken Bates, here to watch the club he sold to Roman Abramovich 20 years ago, could certainly tell the younger generation a thing or two about the days when nobody outside SW6 would have batted an eyelid at Chelsea finishing in the bottom half.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless the problem for Lampard was that this caretaker stint has done little for his reputation as a manager, leaving him no better off than when he left Everton in January. If anything Chelsea have become worse since sacking Graham Potter last month and it did not take long for Newcastle to expose their frailties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full of confidence after securing their place in the top four, Newcastle flew at Chelsea. The counterattacks were relentless and it soon became clear that Newcastle\u2019s plan for Allan Saint-Maximin to target Azpilicueta\u2019s lack of pace at right-back was going to cause problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saint-Maximin provided the impetus in the ninth minute, dribbling down the left and finding Elliot Anderson. The midfielder drove in a low ball and found that no Chelsea midfielder had bothered tracking Anthony Gordon\u2019s run. The midfielder, a target for Chelsea last summer, did not have to try particularly hard to beat Kepa Arrizabalaga from six yards and claim his first goal for Newcastle since leaving Everton in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, at least Chelsea refused to crumble after going behind. Out of nowhere, their youngsters began to play. Pochettino will have seen the runs of Hall on the left, the thrust from Gallagher in midfield and the trickery of Noni Madueke on the right. He will also have appreciated the alertness that led to Chelsea\u2019s equaliser in the 27th<\/sup> minute, Raheem Sterling receiving a quick free-kick, cutting inside from the right and firing in a low drive that Kieran Trippier turned into his own net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the game was knockabout fun. Miguel Almir\u00f3n spurned three opportunities. At the other end Sven Botman almost turned Hall\u2019s cross past Martin Dubravka. In the second half Sterling had a goalbound shot deflected wide by Dan Burn and Newcastle went close to winning it when their teenage debutant, Lewis Miley, clipped the bar from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A draw felt fair, even if Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix and Christian Pulisic wasted late opportunities to win it for Chelsea. Newcastle, celebrating their highest finish since 2002, were content to dream of trips to the Bernab\u00e9u and the San Siro next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the players of\u00a0Newcastle United stood in front of the noisy band of travelling supporters and celebrated qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 2002, their counterparts in blue made a slightly sheepish beat around the Stamford Bridge pitch and wondered what comes next after the season from hell finally came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":34280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[7015,7273,1736,3701,8173,11583,1911,169,8927,6752,9171,306,9026,12612,168,3577,7859,1444,6320,11111,10950,460,12791,4358,10481,12187,1717,496,11973,5072,13256,499,1260,10599,10897,7963,10939,11259,7333,7419,7982,10943,3954,594,5140],"class_list":["post-34279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-abramovich","tag-anthony","tag-aubameyang","tag-azpilicueta","tag-bridge","tag-capital","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea","tag-christian","tag-clearlake-capital","tag-crowd","tag-everton","tag-fans","tag-farewell","tag-frank-lampard","tag-future","tag-graham-potter","tag-hell","tag-hotly","tag-injured","tag-kieran-trippier","tag-lampard","tag-manager","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-midfield","tag-n","tag-newcastle","tag-newcastle-united","tag-one","tag-pierre-emerick-aubameyang","tag-players","tag-pochettino","tag-raheem-sterling","tag-rebuild","tag-roman","tag-saint","tag-san-siro","tag-shot","tag-summer","tag-the-game","tag-todd-boehly","tag-watch","tag-will","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}