Saturday 26th September 2015.
K.O. 17:30.
Chelsea FC head to the dreaded North East of England to face Newcastle United for the Week 7 Saturday evening fixture.
On paper and very recent form this should be an easy 3 points for Chelsea FC with Newcastle having last won a Premier League game 4 months ago in May 2015, indeed they have only won 1 of their last 17 Premier League fixtures.
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Chelsea FC on the other hand have finally got their season started with 3 straight wins in all competitions scoring 10 goals and only conceding 1 in that run.
Football however is played on grass not paper, and is played by human beings and therefore subject to emotions such as bogey teams and players who raise their games against specific opponents!
Jose Mourinho has never won at St. James Park, the last match being a 1-2 defeat on 6th December 2014, and as a manager has a record of P5 W0 D2 L3 there. The only other ground Jose has never won a Premier League match at is The Emirates.
Papiss Cisse is the perfect example of players raising their game against specific opponents. He scored both goals (after coming on as a substitute) in the 2-1 win over Chelsea last season in a campaign total of 11. He has only scored 4 goals against 2 other clubs, Stoke City and Swansea City.
A few fun facts
Newcastle United are the lowest goal scorers in all 4 leagues this season.
Newcastle United have won their last 3 matches against Chelsea FC at St. James’ Park.
Eden Hazard has scored more Premier League goals (4) against Newcastle United than any other opponent.
If Chelsea FC win, it will be Jose Mourinho’s 200th win in his 306th match as manager of Chelsea FC.
If Eden Hazard scores it will be his 50th for Chelsea FC (his real 50th against Arsenal was scrubbed by the FA!).
If selected, it will be Eden Hazard’s 150th start in all competitions, Gary Cahill’s 100th Premier League start, and Ramires’ 150th Premier League appearance for Chelsea FC.
Read Ajitesh Rasgotra’s predicted line up here.
Referee Watch
Martin Atkinson is the match day referee.
His Premier League record is: 271 matches, issuing 50 red and 925 yellow cards.
He last referee’d Chelsea FC in the early season loss (0-3) to Manchester City on 16th August 2015.
He was in charge of the last meeting between Newcastle United and Chelsea FC at St. James Park, the 1-2 defeat on 6th December 2014.
He was also the referee in charge of the 1-1 draw with Burnley on 21st February 2015, a match which will always be remembered for Ashley Barnes’ horror tackle on Nemanja Matic, a tackle that resulted in Matic picking up a red card and a 3 game ban for retaliation!
The irony of that incident and this week’s handbags incident involving Diego Costa and Gabriel will hopefully not be lost on Jose Mourinho in his press conference today.
Indeed if Jose Mourinho gets the opportunity I’m sure he will put pressure on Martin Atkinson to allow retaliation this time, as decreed by the FA’s decision to overturn Gabriel’s red card for it!
Next: Jose Mourinho's Press Conference