Chelsea rescue a point against Newcastle after being two goals down

Willian after scoring the equalizer against Newcastle

Chelsea came back from two goals down to manage a draw against Newcastle United at St. James Park. Ramirez and Willian score two goals in the last 12 minutes to rescue a point for the Champions.

Newcastle United boss Steve McLaren chose to start with Aleksandar Mitrovic who returned after serving a three-match suspension and rookie Swiss defender Kevin Mbabu was given the opportunity to make his first start for the Magpies. Chelsea, on the other hand, were forced into a change after Diego Costa was handed a three-match suspension for his antics in the match against Arsenal.

The first chance of the match fell for defender Kurt Zouma, who put up his hand up when the London club were awarded a free kick for a Jack Colback foul, but the French international’s shot was well off target. Loic Remy was the next to miss as Branislav Ivanovic went past Georginio Wijnaldum and squares the ball for the striker but his first-time effort went just wide.

Newcastle too had a couple of decent chances as Aleksandar Mitrovic headed wide while Moussa Sissoko’s shot was off target. A few minutes later the home team were able to muster two quick chances with Ayoze Perez’s low shot going straight into the hands of Asmir Begovic. Perez then turned provider for Janmaat but again his effort was saved by Begovic.

Chelsea came back as strong as Eden Hazard set off on a mazy run to set up a counter-attack with the ball eventually falling for Cesc Fabregas but his well-struckshot from 22-yards was well stopped by Tim Krul.

Perez hands Newcastle the lead

Newcastle took a deserved lead just before half-time as Vurnon Anita's long ball to fell to Ayoze Perez, who controlled the ball brilliantly before lashing in a shot off the post. As the half ended, Newcastle went into the break with a deserved lead.

Chelsea came out for the second half with a renewed sense of optimism as they began to dominate possession and created a great chance for the former Newcastle striker Remy, whose close-range header was kept out by Krul. Even though the flag was raised for offside Krul’s reflex save looked to give Newcastle confidence.

Soon the lead was doubled off a corner as Fabregas let Wijnaldum through and the Dutchman made no mistake in extending Newcastle's lead. Chelsea started to dominate possession the Champions had more than 85% of the ball in the second half.

With 30 minutes left in the match, Jose Mourinho made a double change to try and get something from the match with Radamel Falcao and Willian coming on for Loic Remy and Nemanja Matic. Soon after he brought on Ramires for Oscar with Chelsea chasing the game.

Ramirez leads Chelsea’s comeback

It was Ramirez who made the difference as Eden Hazard came in from the left wing and laid the ball off for the Brazillian, whose unstoppable shot went into the top corner and even though Krul made an attempt it was always going to be in vain.

With the goal, Newcastle started struggling and were beginning to falter as first Hazard and later Pedro had chances to level things up. With Pedro going one-on-one with the keeper, he should have done better with the chance.

But the goal that Chelsea were threatening did come when Willian’s free-kick was missed by everyone including Krul. The latter kept waiting for a touch to arrive from Ramirez but Chelsea’s goalscorer it never did.

Newcastle were able to watch out the game after the goal to gain a point in the match but would have been really hurting after letting a two-goal lead slip. Chelsea have still not been able to win at St. James Park with Mourinho at the helm.

Chelsea will play Southampton at Stamford Bridge while Newcastle travel to the Etihad to face Manchester City.