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Newcastle United	1 - 2	Chelsea
Half time:	1 - 2
Score Sheet:
Shearer (37)		Gudjohnsen (35) Gudjohnsen (45)
	Teams
Given Hughes Elliott Distin O'Brien Solano Dyer Robert Speed Shearer Bellamy		Cudicini Melchiot Gallas Terry Babayaro Stanic Lampard Dalla Bona Le Saux Hasselbaink Gudjohnsen
Substitutes:
Bernard for Elliott (63) LuaLua for Solano (73)		Forssell for Gudjohnsen (70) Jokanovik for Stanic (84) Zola for Hasselbaink (89)
Subs not used:
Harper Lee Dabizas		de Goey Keenan
Bookings:
None		Stanic (70) Terry (74) Babayaro (88)
Sendings off:
n/a		n/a
Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent) - .
Attendance: 52,123 - second highest crowd of the season by four. United's total attendances (home and away all comps) for the season have now broken through the million mark.

35 mins A solo goal from the Icelander Gudjohnsen, who sprinted past O'Brien after picking the ball just inside his own half wide on the Chelsea left. A fine finish past the helpless Given then followed.  0-1 

37 mins With the visitors seemingly still mentally congratulating themselves, United won a free kick in the Leazes / East stand corner close to the byline. Solano sent it over onto the edge of the six yard box and straight on to the head of the totally unmarked Shearer who nodded home without ceremony.  1-1

45 mins More incisive work by the West Londoners, as Le Saux picked up the ball midway in his own half and sprayed it out to the right. An untracked Hasselbaink had already begun his run into space over the halfway line, and he took the ball to the byline before looking up and sending over a finely-judged cross that Gudjohnsen swiped home despite being outnumbered by a pair of defenders.  1-2

Half time: Newcastle 1 Chelsea 2

Full time: Newcastle 1 Chelsea 2

Uncle Bobby said: 

"I think we lost to a very competent side. I couldn't have asked any more from our players in terms of their work ethic.

"They ran and fought until the bitter end. We never gave it up all afternoon long. But in the second-half, they held a deep line. We couldn't get anything behind them and anything that was played in front of them, the two centre-halves were absolutely magnificent.

"To win here, we would have had to score three goals, and you're not going to do that in every game. These are the games where you have to win 1-0. But the two goals have cost us the match.

"Ranieri will say they've got two clever goals. Fine, but I'll have a few words with our defenders - I have already."

About our next game at Old Trafford:

"That match is the easiest of the lot!" 

"It's just come at the right time - Manchester United away. I always thought that the second half of the season would be difficult. If we can play as well in the second half as we did in the first half, we'll win it.

"If we don't, we won't win it.

"We're at the right end of the table and there's no need to get despondent about it. We would have liked to have kept the run going, but is that being realistic?"

Claudio Ranieri said:

"I'm very happy with the performance after the defeat against Arsenal. We wanted to try to win against the top of the class and I think Newcastle played well.

"But Chelsea responded very well. Carlo Cudicini made great saves from Craig Bellamy and two against Alan Shearer, but we created three or four chances to score more.

"I have a good squad and good players. We've played a lot of the time without Emmanuel Petit and Marcel Desailly, but the young players like Sam Dalla Bona, Frank Lampard and William Gallas have played very well."

"We have improved the defence and this is very important. Now we want to try to get into the Champions League at the end of the season.

"It will be very hard because there are only four places, but it's what we want to try to do."

About our goal:

"We spoke a lot about this, but Shearer is Shearer. He's a fantastic striker. You can't do everything. You have to say well done to Shearer."

Chelsea's 50th win against us in all competitions and our 500th defeat at St. James' Park.

In many ways this has been the most difficult match report in recent weeks to compose.

Previous to our barnstorming run to the pinnacle of the Premiership, our games were almost one-dimensional, with only hints of competency and "little victories" to remark upon. Indeed, after our Intertoto exit, one would almost have thought that our twin targets were a Worthington Cup final place and an end to that London record. 

Anything else just wasn't on the agenda. 

So from giving the written equivalent of a thumbs up to avoiding a home loss to the mackems or holding out to give Manchester United a bloody nose at home, we then jumped into dreamland, with our star rising as the number of unopened doors on advent calendars diminished. Contentment against Ipswich and Blackburn became euphoria and incredulity when Arsenal and Leeds were overcome, then it was hard to enthuse about brushing aside Boro on Boxing Day as it was...well, a bit predictable.

Suddenly however the fireworks stopped going off against Chelsea, and there was no referee to blame or silently give thanks for. Only the truly mad will have denied that the visitors were worthy winners, and as the game entered its final quarter any further scoring would surely have only confirmed the departure of the points from Tyneside. 
For Chelsea at Newcastle read Newcastle at Arsenal - it was that sort of a victory; by no means certain for long stretches of the match but by the end seemingly accepted by both sides. We certainly never looked like grabbing a goal in the latter stages, for once.

Don't think that Robson was misguided in his analysis though - the balance of the chances fell to his team, and they enjoyed plenty of the ball. However this game was between the two sets of eleven players on the pitch: other forces didn't shake up the bottle today. We failed to get the benefit of any fortunate bounces (or decisions), and inspiration was lacking.

It's unfair to single out Dyer when the likes of Robert were peripheral figures, but our fit-again England prospect just ran out of steam - hardly surprising really when one considers his frenetic activity of recent weeks after an extended period in forced repose. Bellamy also struggled to break free of the Chelsea defence as the game wore on, partly because they were playing so far down the pitch - they was simply no room behind them.

So, taking an objective non-supporting angle on the day, we were kept out by a side who played well, not for the first time this season. They managed to soak up our pressure and broke through our lines at crucial times. Had we reached the interval at 1-1 things could have been very different.

But, just as they had an "on" day, Chelsea have also looked remarkably ordinary at other times and we remain deservedly above them in the table because we've been consistently capable of collecting points since we took one off them in August. No shame in that then, no reason to become disheartened by one defeat.

Like the Worthington exit against the same lot, this game is now history - where we go next is of more relevance. It's only saddo web page statto's who frown at the fact it's ten games since we beat the smug feckers.......but our time will come. Grrr.  

Anyway putting aside petty rivalries in favour of an attempt at grown-up level-headedness, after positive returns from Highbury and Elland Road it would be stretching credibility for us to take a third remarkable scalp on the bounce back home (despite half of Tyneside saying "why not like?") If you take the stance of us of being good enough to make the top 4 but not finish as leaders of the pack, then we're already in credit from our recent run of victories.

However, while any pressure that is loaded on us is purely self-inflicted, we can't afford to rest on our laurels. In the same way that we've come good in recent weeks then the likes of Villa and Spurs can embark on similar runs and force their way into the upper echelons of the league. Like us, nobody but their own people believe that they'll take the silverware, but they could have a big say in who gets what come May.

Therefore we can't afford to change our welcome habit of picking up points regularly, and upcoming games against Leicester and Bolton are as important as the Leeds and Spurs tests. 

A more extreme viewpoint would be that our main chance of maximising league success would also be to prematurely exit the FA Cup, but such is the precarious nature of our finances that we cannot afford to miss out on the gate money from future home ties. Who knows, we could even scrape together the cash to re-turf the other side of the pitch....

Players will come into form while others will drift out, and the next few months will surely see yet more intrigue and unexpected developments adding to the interest value of what is already the most engrossing title race in recent years. For our part, we continue to have this feeling that at some stage there's going to be a baptism of fire for some raw toon talent....but we may have been reading too many comics.

We've played our part so far with allegedly limited resources (both in the squad and in the bank) - whether the Robson romanticist movement will take the day or reality will intervene, only time will tell.  
    
Biffa

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