Chelsea play one of their bogey teams at one of their unfriendliest grounds this weekend. Maurizio Sarri may be the one to reverse the Blues’ fallow streak at St. James’ Park.
Regardless of where Chelsea and Newcastle are in the standings in any given season, a trip to St. James’ Park prompts a sinking feeling in Blues fans’ stomachs. Andre Villas-Boas was Chelsea’s manager the last time they won a Premier League fixture at Newcastle, back in December 2011. Since then Chelsea have mustered only one draw to go with four losses, including the 3-0 final insult of the 2017/18 season.
Maurizio Sarri may or may not know the recent history between the two clubs. Even if he does, he may not be too intimidated heading into Rafael Benitez’s home ground.
Sarri and Benitez have met only twice before. Sarri brought Empoli up to Serie A for the 2014/15 season. Empoli drew Benitez’s Napoli away 2-2 in December, and defeated Napoli 4-2 in April. Six weeks later, Napoli hired Maurizio Sarri to replace Rafael Benitez.
The man Sarri replaced at Chelsea, Antonio Conte, lost both of his away fixtures against Benitez. On top of last year’s week 38 humiliation, Conte’s Juventus lost at Benitez’s Napoli 2-0 in 2014.
Aside from history and coaching duels, Chelsea bring better momentum into this game than their hosts. While the Blues have scored five goals to win both games so far, Newcastle have scored only once. That goal came in their opening day loss to Tottenham, which they followed up with a mind-numbing but strangely mesmerizing scoreless draw against Cardiff City. Second-year loanee Kenedy somehow escaped a red card – both in the moment and retrospectively – for a kick out, and then finished the game by sending a penalty kick straight at the keeper to preserve the empty score sheet.
Newcastle are still in the midst of their discord over unhappy ownership, which unsurprisingly affected the club’s transfer window. While the team still have plenty of talent and on-pitch organization from several years with Benitez, they have not been able to translate it into any success.
Chelsea cannot afford to be overconfident, knowing how dangerous any Rafael Benitez side can be. While Huddersfield are still acclimating to the Premier League and Arsenal are in the same spot as Chelsea with a new manager, Newcastle are an established Premier League club with several years of continuity under a highly successful manager (even if that success came elsewhere). Newcastle’s fans love Benitez and they will surely know Chelsea’s struggles in the ground. They will not offer any hospitality to the visitors.
Newcastle will be hungry for three points, and may take a bit of heart from their history when Chelsea step foot in St. James’ Park. Newcastle will hope their past gives them some momentum against the Blues. Meanwhile Chelsea will look for another chance to start with a clean slate under Maurizio Sarri, and hope he brings one more element of his Serie A record to England.