Newcastle up to third after defeating 10-man Chelsea | OneFootball

Newcastle United strengthened their Champions League credentials and moved up to third after defeating 10-man Chelsea 2-0 at St James' Park.

The home side took the lead inside the first few minutes of the game. Anthony Gordon charged in the area and went down theatrically under the challenge from Moisés Caicedo.

The Magpies won the ball back quickly though with Gordon suddenly recovering instantly after rolling around on the ground in pain. The England forward didn't need to get involved in the attack though as Jacob Murphy's low ball was converted from close range by Sandro Tonali.

Chelsea were reduced to 10 men in the 36th minute to make any comeback attempt far more difficult. Initially referee John Brooks had only given Nicolas Jackson a yellow card for his elbow on Sven Botman.

However, VAR asked the referee to take another look and he decided to upgrade his decision to a straight red card which will mean Jackson will miss the rest of Chelsea's league games.

Despite going down to 10 men, the Blues did show some attacking intent in an even second half but Eddie Howe's team eventually wrapped up the win in stoppage time.

A freekick from the right was floated out to Dan Burn who found Bruno Guimarães. The midfielder turned towards goal and fired a shot that took a big deflection off Malo Gusto to make it 2-0 and move Newcastle up to third with two games left to play including a crunch match against Arsenal that could even see them finish second when all is said and done.