Chelsea‘s hope of finishing fourth in the league have all but ended after they lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle tonight. With the loss (and Spurs win at Bolton), Chelsea now trail fourth place Spurs by four points with two games to look. It looks like if Chelsea are to play in the Champions League next season, they will have to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in two weeks.
Chelsea were outdone tonight by two pieces of magic by Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse. Cisse put Newcastle ahead in the 19th minute when Chelsea defenders gave him too much room on the edge of the box and he volleyed the ball past Petr Cech.
But his second was class. He received the ball out wide on the left following a throw-in and then surprised everyone in the ground by turning and hitting the ball with the outside of his right foot, curling it over Petr Cech and into the net.
Cisse, who has 13 goals in 12 games for Newcastle, reportedly has a £15m buyout clause in his contract. If that is true, then he is a bargain and Chelsea should look at pairing Torres and Cisse up-front together next season.
Roberto Di Matteo had an eye on Saturday’s FA Cup final with his line-up, but I was disappointed with the performance of Chelsea tonight, especially with the players knowing that a good performance could at least get them onto the bench at Wembley.
Bertrand had maybe his worst game in a Chelsea shirt, while Mikel, Meireles; Ramires, Malouda and Sturridge all were poor.
Mikel was simply terrible. His decision making was really bad and he seems to be going backwards as a player and not improving at all.
And what has happened to Daniel Sturridge? Earlier in the season he was one of Chelsea’s best players, but since Christmas he has been terrible and at this rate, there is no way that he will make England’s Euro side.
What did you think of the game tonight?
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