Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes fired Newcastle United to a huge win over Chelsea on Sunday.
Indeed, Newcastle United took a major step towards Champions League qualification by beating Chelsea 2-0 in a crunch Premier League game at St James’ Park.
Eddie Howe’s side are now up to third in the Premier League table. Tonali scored in the opening exchanges before Guimaraes sealed a vital three points with a deflected shot in the dying moments of the game.
The Newcastle United manager switched things up on Sunday. For the first time in a while, he deployed Tonali and Guimaraes as a midfield duo, straying from his 4-3-3 system with both Joelinton and Joe Willock missing through injury.
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Though they have admittedly calmed down in recent months, there had been doubts that Tonali and Guimaraes could successfully play together for Newcastle.
However, the duo were excellent even in a slightly different formation against the Blues, making Chelsea’s expensively assembled pivot of Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia look lost at times.
After the game, Guimaraes was full of praise for Tonali.
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Bruno Guimaraes sends brilliant message to Sandro Tonali after Newcastle United beat Chelsea
Tonali took to Instagram after the game to celebrate both his goal and the win in general.
The Italian captioned a collage of images: “Run. Fight. Battle. Take the win.”
In response, Guimaraes simply added: “What a player.”
It really is incredible to think there were ever doubts they could operate together successfully.
Bruno Guimaraes slammed for celebration in Newcastle United vs Chelsea
The celebration police were out again on Sunday.
In fact, pundit Pat Nevin claimed Guimaraes didn’t deserve to celebrate against Chelsea, because he “did very little” other than score a late goal.
That feels very harsh. Granted, there was a slight slice of luck with the goal but the Brazilian put in another dynamic display in the middle of the park.
| Goals | Shots | Key passes | Tackles | Interceptions |
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
As per WhoScored data, he played a key pass, had three shots, made one interception and one tackle.
Guimaraes and Tonali were excellent throughout. If there were any lingering doubts about their partnership, they’re surely gone now.
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