Newcastle's key to victory against agitated Chelsea

Jackson sees red (Alex Dodd - CameraSport / Getty Images)

Chelsea had a horrible first half against Newcastle on Sunday, and were totally outclassed by their opponents - thanks to a tactical decision by Eddie Howe. 

Newcastle opted for a 3 at the back which we haven't seen a lot this season due to injuries - Sven Botman in the center of defence, as well as Murphy, Barnes, Gordon and Isak all starting in the same lineup. Murphy and Livramento played as the wing-backs. 

The main thing I noticed was their attack down the right hand side, which I think they opted for due to Moises Caicedo playing at right-back. Because we don't play with three in holding midfield, for Enzo, Lavia and Moi to all play together, Moi has to be shifted to right-back (but regularly inverts whenever Chelsea have the ball). 

Because of this, Newcastle looked to focus all their attacks down the right, where Marc Cucurella is forced into a lot of defensive work, on top of his runs down the flank and into midfield. 

(via SofaScore)

To make this more effective, we can see that several of the Newcastle players' average positions lean to that flank, including the striker Isak (14), which created a big overload on Chelsea's left:

(via Sofascore)

This move completely isolated Moises Caicedo - who does such a good job of shielding the Chelsea defence and winning the ball back in dangerous areas. Their opening goal capitalised on a mistake by Romeo Lavia, who is more suited to progressing the ball than intercepting it. The goal gave Newcastle confidence, and they could sit back and be patient for most of the game. 

Eddie Howe is also an expert when it comes to setting up his teams defensively - shifting into a 541 very quickly and looking to block ball progression through the middle of the pitch.

Chelsea's insistence on slow, patient build up play was also hurting them a lot; as soon as they started to progress the ball, Newcastle already had everyone behind the ball and it became very difficult to create anything. At the end of the first half Chelsea had three total shots, all outside the box and none on target. 

Howe's game plan was working, and it was beginning to irritate Chelsea. Enzo picked up a needless yellow for a conversation with the referee, but by far the biggest moment of the first half was Nicholas Jackson's red card for an elbow on Sven Botman.

Some called it light, others said there were similar incidents by other teams this season that were not punished in the same way. Despite all that, Jackson has no need to commit the foul, and the repercussions could be major in Chelsea's push for the Champions League. 

A man down in the second half, Maresca shifted Caicedo back to the middle and the change was night and day. Chelsea bossed possession, created more chances and limited their opponents to very few - Newcastle had twelve shots in the first half, but only three in the second. 

My worry is how we will handle the last two games without Jackson - Palmer and Neto were handed an increased workload following the striker's dismissal, and while the Blues created a lot more, they couldn't finish their chances. 

The key for Maresca now will be deciding if the Caicedo RB experiment is still worthwhile, and if the positives we see in the possession phase outweigh the potential weaknesses, which were displayed against Newcastle.