St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Chelsea preview | OneFootball

Newcastle v Chelsea.

League Cup last sixteen tie.

Wednesday 30 October 2024 and a 7:45pm kick-off.

Newcastle will be hoping for a treat rather than a trick this Wednesday night as they look for a place in the League Cup quarter-final.

They play host to a Chelsea team who knocked us out of last season’s League Cup on penalties after scraping a last-minute equaliser. The two teams shared three goals in the Premier League just a few days previous in a 2-1 win for Chelsea and NUFC will be hoping for revenge.

In honour of the season, many former Toon stars are expected to make a brief appearance – David BATty, Keith GHOULespie, Chales N’ZOMBIEa and Craig HELLamy to name a few. News is also awaited on the fitness of Emil Witch-Krath, Lewis Halloween and Fabian Scare!

Form

Newcastle have seen off Nottingham Forest and AFC Wimbledon so far in the League Cup, whilst Chelsea (who entered a round later due to playing in Europe) have beaten Barrow.

In the league, Toon have played nine and won three whilst drawing three, leaving them with twelve points and a disappointing twelfth place in the league. Chelsea have five wins and two draws, meaning they currently sit fifth.

Toon and Chelsea played each other on Sunday in the premier league. This was a tough one to take for NUFC who lost 2-1 having got themselves back into the match through an Isak equaliser.

Unfortunately, Cole Palmer was given far too much space to score the winner at the start of the second half and our dreadful run at Stamford Bridge continued.

Stat attack!

Chelsea have been NUFC’s most frequent League Cup opponents, playing the Toon on six separate occasions, making this the seventh.

This will be the second successive season the teams have met in this competition, Chelsea winning last year’s match on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Newcastle have won their last five League Cup last sixteen matches.

Newcastle have knocked Chelsea out of the League Cup once and been defeated by them no less than five times in this competition.

Memorable match

As I have already stated, Chelsea are Newcastle’s most regular league cup opponents and the meeting in 2010 will live long in the memory.

Behind to an early goal at Stamford Bridge, United roared back to take a 3-1 lead through goals from Nile Ranger, Ryan Taylor and Shola Ameobi.

Just as the travelling Toon Army were dreaming of their first win at Stamford Bridge for twenty four years, back came the hosts with two late goals to seemingly send the tie into extra time.

With the clock ticking past the ninety minute mark, Newcastle were awarded a corner and up popped Ameobi again to bury a header and send Toon fans into delirium! Final score 4-3. Brilliant!

Played for both

Celestine Babayaro signed for Graham Souness’ NUFC in January 2005 and scored in one of his first games at home to Coventry City in the FA Cup. He’d previously scored against the Toon for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a 1-1 draw in 1998. In a twist of fate, Newcastle hosted Chelsea on the final day of 04/05 and gave the champions a guard of honour that Babayaro was allowed to partake in, having played four league games that season for the blues.

Damien Duff is best (worst) remembered for an own goal that put the final nail in our awful relegation of 2009. He also scored our first Championship goal of the 09/10 promotion campaign when equalising in a 1-1 draw away to West Brom before jumping ship. We signed Duff from Chelsea in 2005 but never really saw the best of him.

Loic Remy was a striker who played for both Chelsea and the Toon. Something of a mercenary, he had an eye for goal and scored the winner away at Tottenham in 2013 in a 1-0 win that saw Tim Krul make a million saves in one of my favourite ever away trips.

Managers

Eddie Howe after the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea:

“The majority I liked. It was a strong performance. Coming here you know it’s going to be a very difficult game, especially when you concede relatively early in the match. Our response was really strong. We scored a great goal ourselves and we weren’t perfect in our performance. We’ve lost the game, but I thought it was another improvement. I feel the team’s moving in the right direction, albeit we’re making a couple of mistakes that’s cost us.”

Enzo Maresca after that 2-1 win over Newcastle:

“It was a different kind of game compared to the rest. We know how strong they are and how good they are. We had some good moments on the ball, very happy overall. We can attack better and defend better. We started three months ago so I am very happy where we are now. The important thing is the feeling is good.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.

I take special pleasure out of beating this lot ever since they made me cry at Wembley in 2000.

We need revenge for our League Cup defeat last year and I think we’ll get it.

In the process we’ll also add to our steadily improving shootout record: Newcastle 1-1 Chelsea (Toon to win on penalties).