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LONDON – Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United was comfortable, but this was a night when droughts broke and confidence was restored. Timo Werner was superb, while Kepa Arrizabalaga restored Thomas Tuchel’s faith in his first Premier League start since October.
While Newcastle offered little in attack, this was an almost perfect night for Chelsea. The only blemish on the notebook was Tammy Abraham’s injury in the first half, but it was her replacement Olivier Giroud who scored his first goal, with Werner grabbing the second. Now it’s six unbeaten games for Tuchel and, more importantly, the forwards have started to score, the first in the league with the new boss.
Having waited 13 matches for a Premier League match, the final seconds of the goal drought were perhaps Werner’s most stressful.
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Chelsea were already 1-0 in favor at this stage, following Giroud’s first match, in which Werner played a key role in the start as he tricked Emil Krafth into passing the ball through the goal, where the fight The result allowed Giroud a comfortable close. final rank – and had just won a corner. Werner found himself at the far post when the pitch came and, having somehow found his way to it without scoring, he slipped and slid, but managed to deflect the ball over the line, despite Karl’s best efforts. Darlow to get her out.
Then came the VAR check to check if the ball hit Giroud’s hand on the way to Werner. While waiting for the decision, he told his teammates in the dugout that it would be his luck if his strike was ruled out. Fortunately for the German international, the call came back in Chelsea’s favor. Werner, his lip bleeding from an earlier blow to the face, looked briefly at the sky and then exhaled.
It marked the end of his streak without a top-flight goal. It so happened that the goal came in the 1000th minute of this drought, his worst goalless period in the league since returning to VfB Stuttgart in the 2014-15 season. Six seasons later and it was his scoring record at RB Leipzig that led Chelsea to spend £ 45 million to bring him out of the Bundesliga. Having scored 34 in 45 games for Leipzig last season, his comeback of four in 23 league games this season for Chelsea is still far less than expected.
But this lack of finished product was not due to not having tried it. Werner has at times been frustrated and heartbroken at Chelsea. He throws himself to the ground, always floating in the half spaces, seeking to play with the defenders’ shoulders and cutting the flank. He tried it in Chelsea, but with Frank Lampard it just didn’t fit. With Tuchel, he has shown green shoots of recovery with his two assists against Sheffield United on February 7, and this scrambled effort will feel like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
After 1,000 minutes in the Premier League without a goal, Timo Werner scored in Chelsea’s victory over Newcastle. Getty
“I was happy that I finally scored,” Werner said after the game. “There is still a long way to go in the rest of the season. As a forward, you always want to score.”
This was easy for Chelsea and their much maligned goalkeeper Kepa. The world’s most expensive goalkeeper had his first Premier League start since 17 October, when he conceded three against Southampton. Since then he has seen Edouard Mendy take his place, with his match action restricted to cup competition. But after Kepa’s impressive performance against Barnsley last week in the FA Cup, Tuchel continued his policy of giving players a second chance to impress and the Spanish international restored faith. But Mendy is still Chelsea’s number one, as Tuchel said after the game.
Kepa will need a rebirth to calm skeptics about his long-term future in West London, but like Tuchel did with Marcos Alonso, Jorginho and Antonio Rudiger, he drew a line in the sand from Lampard’s tenure and allowed show them that they are worthy of being part of your long-term plans. Kepa did what it took and made smart saves with a Jonjo Shelvey free kick and Joe Willock header, but it remains to be seen whether this was the start of his rebirth or a chance to impress in the showcase.
While Newcastle was disjointed and lacking cohesion, Chelsea continues to build under Tuchel and we are starting to see early signs of what they will look like in the long run. Mateo Kovacic is the beat of the side and dictates the tempo from the center of the park. His long, reaching balls or short, neat passes are often the catalyst for the team’s transitional game. Alonso has nailed the first-choice left-back spot, with Callum Hudson-Odoi on the right. Mason Mount was dangerous again, and should have grabbed Chelsea’s third in the first half only to shoot wide, while the defense appears to be settled.
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It remains to be seen, however, who will be Tuchel’s favorite forward, or how exactly Hakim Ziyech or Christian Pulisic fit in. Pulisic was an unused substitute (Reece James was hired by Hudson-Odoi later) and has managed just 84 minutes out of 450 possible in the league with his new coach. He still has work to do to get back to the form we saw at the end of last season.
“Well today the first change was already made in the first half due to injury and Christian was a tight decision on whether to start again after the cup match, or if he comes from the bench and 11 other starts,” Tuchel said. “It makes it difficult like the third substitution, you don’t want to use that too early, so we did what we always do in the middle of the game, we just thought about what can help you win the game. Christian absolutely deserved to start, he deserved to go in as well. which I hope will continue and I am absolutely confident that it will be a major influence on us and will have a major impact on us in the future. “
Rebuilding Werner’s confidence was high on Tuchel’s to-do list when he took over from Chelsea in late January.
The £ 45m signing of RB Leipzig hadn’t wanted for lack of effort, but it was the final product missing from Werner’s production. But on this chilly West London night, he put on a performance worthy of his reputation and promise as he kept the Newcastle defenders spinning and finally landed the goal he had worked so hard for.
“Timo was decisive for us today,” Tuchel said.
Source: espn.co.uk
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