Newcastle United 0-0 Chelsea, St James Park, 22 April 2007
Newcastle fans weren’t expecting much out of this game; shoddy defending all season has let them down more than they admit to remembering.
But Newcastle have shown great character against the ‘big’ sides, drawing with Manchester United, Arsenal and now Chelsea. Every single player – from Bramble and Steven Taylor at the back straight up to Martins and Sibeirski – fought tooth and nail.
Chelsea have little in the tank because of their injuries mid-season and their excruciating run of games, but that’s no excuse at this level.
Newcastle have greater ‘mental’ issues than personnel issues, but as long as they can be as motivated as they were today for some of the smaller games, they’ll do much better.
Chelsea will be kicking themselves, and Mourinho, who earlier claimed that it was forbidden for referees to give penalties against Manchester United, is bound to claim post-game that it is forbidden to give penalties for Chelsea.
In fairness, Sibierski should have received a card for his antics against Terry, but overall Newcastle did a great job and Chelsea weren’t good enough.
Thank you Bramble, for not fucking up, and thank you Dyer, Sibierski, Emre and Milner for sticking it in at Chelsea and thank you, Nicky Butt, for putting your heart into it for once 🙂
Note: Looking for more Newcastle United news? Hit NUFCBlog, written by our very own Ed Harrison, lifetime Newcastle fan.
hohohohoho…..chelsea stumble! cool!
Football, eh? Bloody hell!
“Chelsea will be kicking themselves, and Mourinho, who earlier claimed that it was forbidden for referees to give penalties against Manchester United, is bound to claim post-game that it is forbidden to give penalties for Chelsea.”
And he did as well. LOL.
A great chance missed by Chelsea to catch Manchester United – they will not get many more this season – if any.
Even if Chelsea beat United at Stamford Bridge – Manchester will still lead on goal difference. Credit to Newcastle for a gutsy performance – they are a different team when they show this kind of fighting spirit.
Newcastle really need to play every game with this spirit – and then we’d be much higher up the league table – too late for this season but hope springs eternal.
It’s a bit like Arsenal and Pool (and United a few years ago) – much more motivated to play against the bigger teams than against the smaller ones.
Chris – Mourinho’s going a bit too far, and what’s worse, his whining gives license to Chelsea fans to start a bitchfest as well.
I guess we’ll have to ‘analyse’ that United penalty tomorrow.
its a bit disconcerting for me as a manchester united fan… becaise they should have conceeded a penalty for two consecutive games now… im just worried that a similar incident will occure in the CL where the referee may see things differently
to be fair though.. i could totally see how any ref would see that it might not have been a penalty against shetfield united.. and when in doubt they have to swallow the whistle