Newcastle United narrowly got over the line to beat Chelsea on Sunday.
While the 2-0 scoreline suggests it was comfortable for Eddie Howe’s side, that was certainly not the case.
Chelsea were dominant in the second half, despite going down to 10 men after Nicolas Jackson’s red card.
The Blues appeared to get better despite being a man down, while Newcastle United produced a cliched game of two halves. The Magpies were relentless in the first half, but did not look like a team that had a man advantage in the second.
You could feel the nerves inside St James’ Park, only for Bruno Guimaraes to lift the pressure with his 90th minute goal.
‘Strange’ Newcastle United got over the line against Chelsea
The second half was a difficult watch for Toon fans, with Alan Shearer admitting that it was a ‘strange’ 45 minutes.
The Newcastle United legend addressed the Magpies’ win on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football podcast.
“Second half was really strange,” he said.
“Chelsea were much the better team. They were the ones playing on the front foot. All us Geordies were sat at the bar thinking ‘what on earth is going on here, we’re going to chuck this away’.
“Reece James had one really good chance late on. Once he missed that, Newcastle went up the other end and got the goal with Bruno Guimaraes. Talk about a game of two halves.”
Shearer added: “Second half we might have gotten away with it. It wasn’t a great performance. First half was amazing. I thought we went after them, put them under pressure. The crowd were amazing. Got to give Chelsea credit, they came back at Newcastle in the second half and were really impressive. We were all worried. It was a bit nervy for a while, but it doesn’t matter at this stage of the season. You’ve just got to get over the line.”
Newcastle United had Champions League nerves in 2023 too
It was a nervy second half against Chelsea. Everyone inside St James’ Park knew how important the game was, and those nerves translated on to the pitch.
Newcastle United were a completely different team in the second half. They sat in and defended, while they were guilty of some poor decisions when they did eventually get on the ball.
It was reminiscent of two years ago when Newcastle faced Leicester City in their final home game of the 2022/23 season. Going into that game, the Magpies knew that a point would be enough to secure Champions League qualification.
They had home advantage against a side that were destined to be relegated. Yet Howe’s team nervously played their way to a 0-0 draw, with the Foxes almost snatching victory in the dying embers of the game.
Newcastle had to rely on Nick Pope to bail them out. He made a sensational save in stoppage time to keep the score at 0-0, as Newcastle went on to secure Champions League qualification.
It was a similar story on Sunday. Nick Pope was excellent against Chelsea, making two wonderful saves in the second half to deny Enzo Maresca’s resurgent side.
As Shearer says, it does not matter how you get over the line at this stage of the season. Newcastle knew that beating Chelsea would be seismic for their Champions League hopes, and they managed to get the job done.
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