Sports Circuit

Two historic clubs who find themselves next to each other in the middle of the table took to the pitch in West London Monday night. Both the Blues and the Magpies were looking for three points to push closer to claiming European Football next season, which appears to be quite the challenge for both teams.

Early on in the match, Chelsea took the front foot as a shot from Cole Palmer took a slight deflection from Nicolas Jackson and found the corner of the net. It looked like Chelsea would take a lead into the half, but Alexander Isak took his chance and guided the ball perfectly into the corner of the net past an outstretched hand from Dorde Petrović. The half would end deadlocked at 1.

Shortly after the start of the second half, Cole Palmer found himself with a chance to take the lead. Last weekend against Brentford, Palmer had a great chance to give his team the lead and rolled it wide, but not this time. Palmer slotted it home and gave Chelsea the advantage.

Then, we got a glimpse of what Mykhailo Mudryk could turn into in the future, as he took the ball through a crowd of players, rounded the goalkeeper, and kept his composure as he slid the ball home just past a sliding defender. Mudryk’s speed continues to be apparent when he’s on the pitch. If he can build on other aspects of his game and show composure with the ball as he did on that goal, he will be an outstanding player for the Blues.

The game looked to be locked up, but then in the 90th minute Jacob Murphy’s thunder strike flew past Petrovic at the near post to make it a one-goal game and create a nervy atmosphere in stoppage time.

Chelsea held on through the final minutes to claim the three points. Chelsea remain in 10th place in the table and trail Newcastle by one point. The player of the match for me was Cole Palmer, who now has 11 goals and 8 assists in 23 Premier League appearances this season. As Peter Drury said, “City’s boy is Chelsea’s man”.