The truth about Chelsea and Newcastle United – Taking away the hysteria | OneFootball

Newcastle United and Chelsea meet on Sunday.

A clash at High Noon where if there is a winning team, they will then be one of the massive favourites to get top five and Champions League football.

As for a losing side on Sunday at St James’ Park, just two rounds of Premier League matches to put things right.

I just wanted to present some information about both Chelsea and Newcastle United, to take away some of the hysteria and replace it with facts.

You have to respect any opponent but some of the panic amongst a minority of Newcastle United fans has been laughable.

A reaction to the events of Sunday, when Chelsea won 3-1 against champions Liverpool, whilst Newcastle United needed an 89th minute penalty to get a point at Brighton.

So leaving the hysteria aside for a minute, the last five months of football from 11 December 2024 onwards, these are the matches in all domestic competitions that Chelsea and Newcastle United have won:

Chelsea

Chelsea 2 Brentford 1

Chelsea 5 Morecambe 0

Chelsea 3 Wolves 1

Chelsea 2 West Ham 1

Chelsea 4 Southampton 0

Chelsea 1 Leicester 0

Chelsea 1 Spurs 0

Fulham 1 Chelsea 2

Chelsea 1 Everton 0

Chelsea 3 Liverpool 1

These last five months, Chelsea winning 10 of the 22 domestic (league and cup) matches that they have played.

Newcastle United

Newcastle 4 Leicester 0

Newcastle 3 Brentford 1

Ipswich 0 Newcastle 4

Newcastle 3 Villa 0

Man U 0 Newcastle 2

Spurs 1 Newcastle 2

Arsenal 0 Newcastle 2

Newcastle 3 Bromley 1

Newcastle 3 Wolves 0

Southampton 1 Newcastle 3

Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0

Birmingham 2 Newcastle 3

Newcastle 4 Forest 3

West Ham 0 Newcastle 1

Liverpool 1 Newcastle 2

Newcastle 2 Brentford 1

Leicester 0 Newcastle 3

Newcastle 4 Man U 1

Newcastle 5 Palace 0

Newcastle 3 Ipswich 0

These last five months, Newcastle United winning 20 of the 27 domestic (league and cup) matches that they have played.

I want you then to also factor in the current top half of the Premier League table with only three rounds of matches remaining:

As you can see, in these past five months, Newcastle United have won seven matches against teams who are amongst the ten best in England this season. Amongst the seven wins, Newcastle have defeated Liverpool (top), Arsenal twice (second in table), Forest (sixth) and Villa (seventh). Also, two wins over Brentford who are currently ninth.

In this entire five month period, Chelsea have only won two games against teams currently top half of the Premier League.

A 2-1 home win against Brentford back on 15 December 2024 and then nothing at all against one of these top ten teams, until Liverpool at the weekend.

United’s win at Wembley seven weeks ago was a dominant victory against the best available Liverpool side, who were desperate to get a victory after having just lost to PSG and exited the Champions League. On Sunday, having won the league and nothing left to play for, Arne Slot rested six of the ten outfield players who had secured the title a week earlier in a 5-1 win over Tottenham.

The media reaction to Chelsea winning this match was unbelievable, as hysterical as that of the minority of Newcastle fans who are now seeing disaster almost a certainty on Sunday. In so many reports I read and heard after the match at Stamford Bridge, they were so desperate to big up Chelsea and Cole Palmer in particular, they ‘forgot’ to mention the small detail of Liverpool leaving out their excellent first choice midfield trio, Diaz who has been key in attacking areas, as well as first choice defenders Konate and Robertson. Whilst of the four outfield players who did remain,, Trent Alexander-Arnold not with his mind already on the beach, more a case of already at Real Madrid.

I am not going to become arrogant and entitled by claiming Newcastle United will beat Chelsea for sure on Sunday.

However, I have every belief in Eddie Howe and his players serving it up to Chelsea and if the visitors did happen to win, then I think they will have had to put in some performance.

Even under Mike Ashley, Newcastle United regularly won at St James’ Park against Chelsea, a Chelsea who were pretty much top four constants and champions a fair few times. Even though NUFC’s record at Stamford Bridge remained challenging, at SJP a different story.

Eddie Howe has a faultless record at St James’ Park against Chelsea, with what felt in terms of the earlyish battle for Champions League qualification a pivotal win in 2022, immediately before the break for the Qatar World Cup, Chelsea very lucky to escape with a 1-0 defeat courtesy of a brilliant Joe Willock finish.

Then United smashed Chelsea 4-1 at St James’ Park last season, before we saw in October 2024 a confident 2-0 NUFC win that helped set us on the way to the eventual League Cup silverware at Wembley. Joe Willock excellent in that match as well.

As well as Chelsea’s struggles these past five months to win against anything other than teams who are now bottom half of the Premier League, another massive stat sticks out.

Since 8 December 2024, Chelsea have won only one domestic away match in these past five months. Even that was ironically at a stadium only two miles away from Stamford Bridge! Chelsea trailing almost the entire match at Fulham who should have put the game to bed, only for Chelsea to fluke a win with a goal on 83 minutes and then the winner in the third minute of added time.

Other than that one-off, no other domestic away wins at all these past five months for Chelsea.

Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United players just have to do on Sunday what they have been doing these past five months, week in week out. If United perform as they are capable of, Chelsea won’t be able to cope with that intensity at St James’ Park, as we have seen so many times before.