3️⃣ points as Chelsea ease past toothless Newcastle | OneFootball

Chelsea picked up where they left off before the international break with a win away at Newcastle in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Here’s what we made of the action from St James’ Park …

Chelsea can win the title

Despite their impressive summer of transfer activity, there weren’t many pundits tipping Chelsea for the title before the season began.

Given the insanely high standards set by Manchester City and Liverpool in recent seasons, you can perhaps understand why there was widespread scepticism about the Blues’ chances of challenging.

But even though the jury is still out on Frank Lampard for many, his side are top of the league and on a 12-match unbeaten run in all competitions.

So in this crazy, unpredictable season, why can’t they win the title?

Last month when they drew 3-3 with Southampton it looked like their porous defence would hold them back but even though an Antonio Rüdiger error very nearly cost them an equaliser against Newcastle, they now look a lot more solid, especially with Edouard Mendy between the sticks.

Their midfield and forward line is as good as any team in the country and though Lampard’s inexperience might become a problem at the business end of the season, he deserves immense credit for his side’s recent results and the style of football he’s cultivating.

We’re not saying Chelsea definitely will win the title, but they have as good a chance as anyone.

Nothing ever changes by staying the same

But one club who we can confidently say won’t be winning anything anytime soon is Newcastle.

The Magpies are painful to watch at the moment and they gave Chelsea very little to worry about in this match.

It might have been a different story if Isaac Hayden hadn’t blazed a great chance to equalise over the bar in the second half, but the hosts deserved nothing from a game in which they had just one shot on target and 28% possession.

They missed Callum Wilson today and Joelinton was useless, but they’re going nowhere fast under Steve Bruce. They won’t trouble the top half of the table and they won’t be relegated either.

Mike Ashley might be cool with that but you can understand why those long suffering Geordie fans are desperate for a new owner and a new manager ASAP.

Werner and Abraham are a fabulous combo

Remember when Timo Werner took a few games to score his first Chelsea goal and people were suggesting he couldn’t cut it in the Premier League?

And remember when Werner signed for Chelsea, and people were saying Tammy Abraham was gonna struggle to get a game?

Turns out people talk a right load of rubbish sometimes.

The two forwards dovetailed beautifully in this game and after teeing up Abraham to score the second goal, Werner was a fractional offside away from getting on the scoresheet himself.

The German might be a number nine by trade but he has so many facets to his game that he’s incredibly dangerous coming in from the left too, and his run in the build-up to the second goal of this game was lethal.

And then there’s the boy Tammy, whose Chelsea contribution is summed up perfectly by this stat …

Olivier Giroud might not agree, but it’s great to see the 21-year-old thriving in this team.

Long may it continue.