Chelsea at Newcastle: Three lessons learnt in tough contest

Chelsea took on Newcastle away from home as the Blues attempted to make it six wins out of six in all competitions. Following what was an underwhelming start to the game, Chelsea promptly turned on the style after Reece James’ opener in the 65′ of the game to run away eventual 3-0 victors.

Here are three lessons we learnt from Newcastle 0, Chelsea 3:

1. Hakim Ziyech was disappointing again

It is striking to this writer—when reflecting on the game against Newcastle—that the best compliment that can be paid to Hakim Ziyech relates to his work rate during the 60 minutes or so that the Moroccan was on the pitch. The 28-year-old was otherwise disappointing in terms of his inability to showcase his quality when on the ball and his struggles to put in effective challenges when off it.

It is hard to believe that this is a player many touted as the “Wizard of Amsterdam” during his time at Ajax. When considering that the player himself must surely be aware of the limited opportunities he has to put forward a compelling case to remain in the starting XI, it is incredibly frustrating not to see hunger and desire being reflected in Ziyech’s game. Be it the poor quality of crosses in the box or the careless giveaways during promising attack phases of play, Ziyech was ultimately unable to offer the kind of incision in the final third that Mason Mount can.

It is certainly easy to look at the three goals that Chelsea scored on the day and forget about just how poor the Blues’ forwards were on the day. However, with Christian Pulisic back in training and Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner projected to return after the November international break, Ziyech is starting to run out of time to prove his worth to his manager. On the basis of his performance against Newcastle, it is going to be difficult to see the Moroccan given more chances once Tuchel has his other forwards back fit and firing.