Chelsea hit back late to draw at Newcastle

“In the end the result is a disappointment but the way we played and the way we responded after this week was excellent”. On the hour Georginio Wijnaldum glanced a header into the far corner of Asmir Begovic’s goal from a Perez corner.

Vurnon Anita’a long cross into the box was well controlled by Ayoze Perez before he turned and fired past Courtois into the Chelsea net. However, two Brazilians were on the bench for the Blues, waiting for their time to shine. I have much to learn from him for the experience and for all that he has won.

Despite having seven minutes to potentially score a winning goal, Mourinho reckons Chelsea hardly stood a chance because of Mr Atkinson’s style of refereeing.

Cahill and centre-back partner Kurt Zouma were bullied by Newcastle’s Aleksandar Mitrovic and Mourinho is now nearly certain to recall John Terry when he returns to FC Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

The Magpies have lost four games in a row and their only win under McClaren was against League Two side Northampton in the same competition. Now comes this, a scrambled draw against a Newcastle team just beaten by Watford and the Championship optimists Sheffield Wednesday.

His opposite number, Jose Mourinho, criticised his players after making a sluggish start. Now is the time for collective action, and for us to find solutions to the problems rather than allow ourselves to be consumed by them. “You can’t play for only 45 minutes of the game“. “I have seen evidence we can improve, I see them every day in training and they can play, they can, they have performances like this (v Chelsea) in them”. Then another substitute, Willian, bent in a free-kick that evaded everyone, including Krul.

Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois has been ruled out for the foreseeable future after knee surgery so Asmir Begovic will once again deputise in goal. It would have been exceedingly harsh on the rejuvenated home team.

Mourinho is yet to win a league game on Tyneside and had lost on his previous three visits, and that led him to question Newcastle’s mentality.