Chelsea rescue a point against Newcastle with late comeback

Never mind the Newcastle crisis, the Chelsea one was nearly back on again here. Steve McClaren started this game as arguably the Premier League manager under most pressure following the reaction of Newcastle supporters to the tamest ofexits from the first cup of the season. He came within 10 minutes of passing much of that burden on to José Mourinho, whose Chelsea side once again looked pallid and likely to slump to a fourth league defeat, before a remarkable late recovery left the home side hanging on just to earn a point.

Mourinho deserves some credit for his substitutions, for Ramires came on to pull the first goal back and was crucially involved in the equaliser, even if he failed to get anything on the Willian free kick that ended up in the back of Tim Krul’s net. Eden Hazard was the real spark of Chelsea’s fightback, however, and the travelling fans must have made their way home wondering why he, and their team in general, only showed any spark in the final few minutes.

Perhaps it was the shock of finding themselves two goals down to Newcastle that spurred Chelsea into action, and the slightly depressing news for the home side was that once the visitors began to mean business they could not live with them. A draw was a fair result in the end and, if Newcastle were left deflated at the final whistle after coming so close to picking up their first league win, at least they showed some of the fight and application their manager had demanded. If they can keep playing like this, they should be climbing the table before long.

McClaren made five changes to the side beaten by Sheffield Wednesday’s reserves in the Capital One Cup in midweek, and asked the inexperienced Kevin Mbabu, a right-footed central defender, to play at left-back against the defending champions.

Mbabu only made his Newcastle debut in the cup game in midweek and, on his first Premier League start, he found himself marking Pedro. In fairness, he kept the former Barcelona player quiet for most of the game. Chelsea stuck with the side that beat Arsenal last week apart from the one enforced alteration, replacing the suspended Diego Costa with Loïc Rémy, booed from the start after his period on loan here two seasons ago.