Chelsea edge Newcastle but no glory for fans at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea 1 Newcastle 0

In other news, Kai Havertz scored a stunning last-minute winner to give Chelsea a fifth Premier League win on the spin and hand Newcastle a first defeat in 10 games in the competition.

It was a day when the action on the field felt strangely incidental, as Chelsea played at Stamford Bridge for the first time since the fall of their oligarch owner, Roman Abramovich, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facing them were opponents who are owned by the Public Investment Fund of a country that is involved in the war with Yemen.

Outgoing Russian money versus incoming Saudi Arabian money, with ethical questions everywhere. It was one to warm the hearts of the romantics.

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It is fair to say that plenty has happened at Chelsea since their last game here – the Champions League last 16, first-leg win over Lille on February 22nd. Abramovich has been identified by the UK government as an enabler of the Vladimir Putin regime and he has been stripped of his assets over here, including Chelsea, which he must now sell. And with a degree of speed, if the stinging sanctions that are in place against the club are not to drag them under.

The match-going Chelsea support tried to process it all. Should they proclaim their affection for Abramovich? To some of them, it remains possible to continue to celebrate him for all that he has done for their club and condemn his nation’s senseless war on Ukraine.

The banner was still up inside the ground – the one that says “Roman Empire” and has an image of him – but there was only one chant of Abramovich’s name that stood out in the 66th minute and that was quickly superseded by another for the manager, Thomas Tuchel, who really is the man in these parts.

It was edgy and uncomfortable, Chelsea labouring for pretty much the whole afternoon. And yet Havertz would provide the sting, bringing Newcastle to their knees when he took a sublime touch to control Jorginho’s ball over the top before steering home in the same elegant movement.

Hero

Havertz could very well have been sent off for an elbow on Dan Burn towards the end of the first half. Now, he was the hero and he might have had a second in stoppage time only to be denied by the crossbar.

When the goal went in, Tuchel tore off on an ecstatic run along the touchline, the pent-up emotions pouring out and, briefly, everybody could forget about what a weird occasion this had been.

The trappings had been everywhere. The Chelsea club shop remained closed, allowing the street hawkers to enjoy a brisk trade because their earning will not find a way back to Abramovich while the old-fashioned sign for the next home game against Brentford declared that tickets were not available.

It had been subdued, to say the least, leading up to kick-off, even if the travelling Newcastle support was typically vocal, and Chelsea’s entrance to The Liquidator - their long-established pre-match tune – invited wry observations.

César Azpilicueta, the Chelsea captain, began his programme notes with a message of support for the Ukrainian people, although the vast majority of the fans in attendance could not read them; the programme was available only in the media and hospitality suites and was not on general sale.

Tuchel’s switch to a back four, with the centre-halves, Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr in the full-back positions, was probably not the big news it might have been but, as the manager, had stressed, Chelsea needed to narrow the focus and find a way to get their jobs done on the pitch.

Tuchel has been hugely impressive in his public utterances, refusing to duck the difficult questions about the wider issues, to say what has needed to be said. Perhaps, there was an element of liberation for him during the 90 minutes, when he could embrace the simple pleasures such as losing the plot with the fourth official or the Newcastle assistant manager, Jason Tindall.

It was a nothing kind of first half, the most notable incident coming on 39 minutes when Havertz, who played at the tip of Chelsea’s 4-1-4-1 formation, led with his elbow into an aerial challenge on Burn and cleaned out the towering Newcastle centre-half.

It could easily have added up to a red card; Havertz would get away with yellow. Burn was understandably angry and, while he received treatment on the ground, he seemed to slap Havertz on the ankle as the Chelsea player walked past. Once Burn was vertical, he went after Havertz, which attracted the interest of Antonio Rüdiger. Burn would be booed by the home crowd. Of course, he was.

Chelsea had continued to wear the branding of Three and Hyundai on their shirts, even though both sponsors have withdrawn their support. Apparently, the club worried that they could not pay for blank shirts from their kit supplier, Nike, and efforts to remove the logos from the existing tops did not work. All pretty surreal.

Humour

Newcastle were the better team before the interval, pressing effectively, at times. Burn flicked a header past the far post from a Matt Targett cross on 35 minutes – Chris Wood could not stretch to apply a touch as the ball flashed in front of him – while Miguel Almirón worked Édouard Mendy with a banging volley in stoppage time.

The travelling fans provided the note of humour. “Mike Ashley, he’s coming for you,” they chanted, introducing their own former owner to the mix – an extremely unloved one, in this case. “He left cos your shit,” retorted the home crowd.

Newcastle shouted loudly for a penalty on 58 minutes when Jacob Murphy went down under Chalobah’s challenge, albeit a little too easily while it did not look as though it would be Chelsea’s day when Timo Werner took a heavy touch when well-placed and Havertz headed at Martin Dubravka from a Hakim Ziyech cross. - Guardian