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#2 Conte's selection again hurts Chelsea
Antonio Conte once again made a questionable selection in his starting XI for Chelsea's trip to Newcastle. Marcos Alonso was surprisingly dropped to the bench and in his place, January signing Emerson Palmieri came in.
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Just like the game against Huddersfield, where Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud were relegated to the substitutes, Alonso's omission made no sense, in arguably one of the most important games of the season.
The absence of the Spaniard was evident on the pitch as Chelsea's threat from the wing back position was eliminated and Emerson could not step up to the occasion in such a high stakes game. This also affected the attacking players of Chelsea in the final third of the pitch as Alonso's quality was missing.
Other than his wing play, Alonso also provides an added element of goalscoring threat in the box as well as from dead ball situations. Since Hazard and Giroud proved to be inadequate on the pitch against Newcastle, especially in the first half, Conte decided against bringing Alonso at half-time or later on, which ultimately ended in Chelsea losing the game by a three-goal margin.
Ross Barkley who has been out of favour since his arrival in January also got a rare start but starting him ahead of the likes of Willian and Cesc Fabregas was another aimless decision by the Italian since the Englishman has very little game during his short spell in London thus far.
The team selection over the last two games has proven to be the deciding factor including the game against Huddersfield Town as the West Londoners miss out on Europe's elite competition for the second time in three seasons.
