Costa has broken nose, should play for Chelsea vs Newcastle
Chelsea play at PSG on Tuesday night in their Champions League last 16 first leg before the home FA Cup fifth-round tie with City. Midweek is already Tuesday and we have just two days to recover.
United are six points behind cross-town rivals City with 12 games left and speculation is mounting that former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is poised to replace Van Gaal.
“We lost the game in the first 15 minutes”. “We had an early goal, an early second goal so that made them very unstable”.
Andros Townsend netted late on for Newcastle, who dropped into the bottom three on goal difference after Chelsea’s second goal. Hiddink said: “Pato is not available for tomorrow’s game [Newcastle], but the idea is that he can be ready for the following weekend”. They are favourites. They have a good team.
Diego Costa, playing in a facemask to protect a broken nose, opened the scoring early on when he timed his run perfectly to guide Willian’s ball into the far corner.
Hiddink said that he wasn’t “satisfied” with being “unbeaten with a lot of draws”. “The way the first goal was scored was typical of a striker in good shape”.
Willian tapped in Chelsea’s third goal past Robert Elliot in goal for Newcastle United into the break.
Chelsea didn’t have things all their own way, with captain John Terry adding to their list of absent defenders following a collision with Aleksandar Mitrovic midway through the first half.
Gary Cahill sees Chelsea’s brilliant 5-1 victory over Newcastle United as the ideal preparation for the two biggest matches of their season in the next eight days.
Branislav Ivanovic had a shot blocked and Pedro fluffed a shot after Jonjo Shelvey gifted the ball to Costa.
The Dutchman was also pleased that Belgian Eden Hazard was able to complete the full 90 minutes as he continues to build up his match fitness following a long lay-off.
Substitute Bertrand Traoré got his debut goal for the club in the Premier League after finishing a lovely link-up play from Hazard and Azpilicueta on the right-hand side. Taylor failed to reach Fabregas’ ball over the top and Pedro tucked in easily.
“If you look at the other [Premier League] teams getting even more possibilities economically to make their squads strong [with the forthcoming TV deal], then you must form now – and I’m sure they are doing it – [plans] to be very competitive next year”, Hiddink said.
A fine move saw Cesar Azpilicueta play a low ball across the box and the Burkina Faso global was there to slide home his first Premier League goal.