By dixon9
April 24 2007

The league was in our hands for 24 hours and……..we……..feeeeecccckkkkkeed it up! (At least temporarily anyway). I’m not going to moan too much as it’s not often Mr Cock-Up is at home to us and we’re having a tremendous season so far.

St Jame´s Park isn’t often a happy hunting ground for us in the league and yesterday was to prove no different (in fact, none of the top 4 have got a result there this season).  The Geordies seemed well up for it whereas we looked languid, tired, jaded…… (Take your pick).  Lampard had on of the worst games I’ve seen him play – he looked well off the pace.  Drogba seemed tired, half-hearted and frustrated by the lack of service.

 

The bad news for us was the strange absence of Carvalho which meant Essien playing in defence – usually always a stifling move as we miss his surging power in midfield.  Why do we have Boulahrouz on the bench and yet switch Essien back there?  Possibly because José was worried about Martins and therefore preferred the more mobile Ghanaian?  To make matters worse Ballack hobbled off during the first half and is doubtful for Wednesday against Liverpool.

 

Shevchenko made a much anticipated entry in the second half but mysteriously adopted a very deep almost midfield position and I’m at a bit of a loss why SWP was removed instead of say Makelele and replaced by Joe Cole.  We had rested Ashley Cole and Diarra and we certainly lacked pace down the flanks because of this.

 

Match highlights? Hmmm….well, there were a few wild Newcastle shots, a Kalou opportunity that was scrambled away in the second half and a Joe Cole flick which almost went in near the end of injury time but on the whole it was a largely boring game – tense but uneventful to say the least.

 

Mourinho made some well publicised post-match comments re Man Utd´s fortunate escapes with nailed on pens against them when playing Sheff Utd (which also would have left them with 10 men) and again, in the following match against Boro and to rub salt into the wounds, our own penalty not given on the 10^th min in yesterday’s match.  He’s quite right to complain (Ferguson certainly wouldn´t hold back in the same situation!).  True, it’s these type of decisions that could decide which way the title goes but one can only adopt a philosophical approach to these type of incidents – hopefully, Karma will set things right and maybe we’ll get some fortunate decisions or they will have some against them before the end of the season.

 

Man Utd now have 4 consecutive away games (after the home leg against Milan) and we will have mainly home games coming up with the exception of the away CL leg at Anfield.  How will this affect the title race remains to be seen but no doubt more twists and turns await us.

 

Glenn Roeder:

"I'm very proud and pleased for them. They have taken a bit of flak recently but they have put on a real performance against the champions.

"I think we played some very good football at times.

"I think that over the full 90 minute a draw was the fair result. I do not think that there was a bad performance from any of my players."

Jose Mourinho:

"It was a chance missed to close the gap - but at the same time we had an away game and Man United had a home game and at the end of it the gap between us is the same."

Newcastle: Harper, Solano, Bramble, Taylor, Carr, Milner, Butt, Dyer, Emre, Sibierski (Carroll 78), Martins.
Subs Not Used: Srnicek, N'Zogbia, Ramage, Babayaro.

Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Essien, Terry, Bridge, Wright-Phillips (Joe Cole 55), Makelele (Shevchenko 76), Lampard, Ballack (Mikel 18), Drogba, Kalou.
Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Boulahrouz.

Booked: Essien, Mikel, Lampard.

Att: 52,056                              

Ref: M Halsey (Lancashire).

PENALTY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoq94P9YiM