Chelsea was knocked out of the Carabao Cup after their 2-0 defeat against Newcastle at St. James Park.
The Magpies took the lead courtesy of Alexander Isak, who has now scored in back-to-back games against the Blues. Benoit Badiashile played a risky pass to Renato Veiga who lost the ball at the edge of his box after pressure from Joelinton, the ball was then played to Isak in the box who tucked it away in the 23rd minute.
Eddie Howe did not have to wait long for their second and final goal of the game, Joe Willock headed on a cross from the goalscorer, which was clumsily helped on into the back of the net by Axel Disasi in the 26th minute.
Chelsea’s defensive blunders in the first half gave Newcastle a comfortable cushion to sleep on in the second half. Despite dominating possession in the second half and having 11 shots, Newcastle defended well and looked comfortable for the whole game. Disasi and Badiashile were the main culprits for Chelsea’s weaknesses at the back. In the minutes they have been given this season, the two Frenchmen have struggled to impress and give Enzo Maresca any reason to put them ahead of Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana in the pecking order.
Maresca’s rotated cup side failed to penetrate Newcastle’s defence like his side previously did last weekend. Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall dissapointed on Wednesday and as current fringe players in the squad with undeniable talent, these games are opportunities to showcase that talent to the manager. Nkunku was particularly disappointing as fans have seen his quality and goal-scoring ability this season, however, in this game he was incredibly passive and rarely threatened the Magpies’ defence. Unlike Nicolas Jackson, who was a constant nuisance to Newcastle, not giving them a minute to relax against the Senegalese forward.
The only bright spark for Chelsea was Mykhaylo Mudryk who was proactive and trying to create chances and make things happen for the Blues. His energy and willingness to take on players gave Newcastle a problem, unfortunately, it was only him causing these issues. The Ukrainian has recently run into good form, taking advantage of his limited minutes this season due to the vast quantity of talent in Maresca’s attack. For a player who has struggled for consistency, hopefully, his good form can continue.
Newcastle supporters will be happy to have a little revenge on Chelsea and progress through to the quarter-finals of the League Cup. Blues fans will be disappointed to go out of this cup early, especially as the fans are used to progressing much further in this competition. As seen by Maresca’s completely rotated side, clearly the Italian did not value this competition as highly as our league fixtures, which will annoy fans who want to win everything, with the tough run of fixtures Chelsea have over the next month, keeping his best players fit is a sensible thing to have on top of Maresca’s priorities.
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