Chelsea swinging the door wide open for Newcastle United | OneFootball

I can’t say that I was ever really that impressed by Chelsea.

Earlier in the season when the media were lining up to to say how brilliant they were.

Any Chelsea victory was apparently ‘proof’ that they were back as contenders, any Chelsea defeat conveniently ignored.

The hype and bias shown towards clubs like Chelsea by the London centric media is laughable.

To me, two other thing stood out about Chelsea in particular early in the season, how much luck they were carrying in many games to get the points they did get, plus how they were so overly reliant on Cole Palmer. Actually, the Chelsea fans were more honest than the feeble journalists, I often saw comments from them stating that if Cole Palmer was missing then they had little confidence in their team to get results.

Looking back at their early season results, Chelsea only won five of their first eleven Premier League matches.

They have went out very early in both domestic cups, winning their first game in both FA Cup against League Two opposition, then losing in both when they then met Premier League opposition. I think flat track bullies is a perfect description, summed up by the fact that they won 5-0 against both Barrow and Morecambe but struggled playing decent level teams.

Which brings us to now.

I watched Chelsea on Saturday night, they were pretty poor.

They carried the luck and led 1-0 at the break thanks to a ninth minute goal, only to then collapse and lose 2-1 to two Villa goals from Asensio, the winner coming with a minute to go.

This leaves the Premier League table like this on Sunday morning:

I find it astonishing that Chelsea are still only one point off top four, joint level on points with Bournemouth with fifth place all but guaranteed to give a Champions League place.

They have absolutely fluked it, but possibly not for long…

Chelsea have swung the door wide open for Newcastle United.

There are no guarantees but we just need to now walk through that open door.

With the top five positions almost certainly giving Champions League football, I see it as Liverpool and Arsenal, plus any three from Forest, Man City, Newcastle United and…Bournemouth.

These are the Premier League records over the last ten matches for both Chelsea and Newcastle United:

Chelsea: Played 10 Won 2 Drawn 3 Lost 5 (9 points)

Newcastle United: Played 10 Won 7 Drawn 0 Lost 3 (21 points)

As you can see, in the space of only ten PL matches, Eddie Howe’s side have gained 12 points on Chelsea.

These are the records in domestic matches this season for both Chelsea and Newcastle United, since United lost at Stamford Bridge on 27 October 2024:

Chelsea: Played 20 Won 8 Drawn 4 Lost 8

Newcastle United: Played 22 Won 15 Drawn 2 Lost 5

You have to laugh, despite spending way over £1.5billion in less than three years on new signings under these new Chelsea owners, the blues boss and the media are saying that they are desperate for a striker just because Jackson is currently injured. Also claiming an urgent need to buy players for other areas of the team as well, including goalkeeper. This despite having the most expensive goalkeeper (£70m+ Kepa), who they have out on loan at a rival Premier League club (Bournemouth).

The way the fixtures have fallen, it is two of the top three, Forest and Liverpool, next for Newcastle United in the Premier League. However, what of course that means, is that then the final 11 PL games that follow, looks nowhere near as daunting.

What a prize today though, if Eddie Howe can pull it off.

A third win of the season over Forest, would see United close the gap to third and Nuno’s side to three points.

Nobody thinks this will be an easy game but certainly Newcastle can do it.

A win today would see Newcastle United move at least fifth in the table and make it 13 wins in the last 16 matches in all competitions.

United going above Chelsea and if they do so, then every chance I think that Newcastle United will remain so for the rest of this season.

The hype on Chelsea has extended to their European run, winning games against Eastern European low standard opposition and the media fawning over them.

Chelsea always strike me as a team of individuals, indeed a club of individuals.

In stark contrast, Newcastle United are a real team, not 11 individuals, whilst in Eddie Howe we have a modest but stellar manager.

The Newcastle United players and fans just need to keep on doing what we have been doing (give or take the odd setback) and it will be Champions League football next season AND whisper it quietly, maybe even also silverware in the dusty NUFC trophy cabinet before this season has the final whistle blown on it.

Wednesday 26 February – Liverpool v Newcastle (8.15pm) TNT Sports

Sunday 2 March –  Newcastle v Brighton (1.45pm) FA Cup fifth round – ITV1