Chelsea 3-2 Newcastle: Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Mykhailo Mudryk ease pressure on Mauricio Pochettino as Blues boost European hopes

There were no wild celebrations from Mauricio Pochettino, just a slow and deliberate double fist pump from his technical area. Another day navigating Chelsea. Nowadays that’s as much as he can ask for.

Here, against a Newcastle side whose injury problems continue to pile up, Chelsea were not consistently impressive. They scored early through Nicolas Jackson, but it looked like they were about to splinter when Alexander Isak equalized just before half-time.

But in the end, Pochettino’s players showed some courage and as we approach the final games of yet another poor season, that is encouraging.

Chelsea scored twice in the twenty minutes of the second half and both were excellent goals. The first was hit high and low by the home side’s best player, Cole Palmer. With England manager Gareth Southgate here to watch, this was a performance that should cement his place in Thursday’s international squad.

The second, meanwhile, was well received by a player who took longer to establish himself, the expensive Ukrainian Mykhailo Mudryk.

There was a moment of shock when Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy – replacing the injured Anthony Gordon in the first half – fired a rocket shot high into the net from an angle. But Chelsea saw through the match without alarm. They now sit 11th in the Premier League and have a game in hand against most of the clubs above them. It all still looks pretty normal, but if Pochettino wants to see a sixth home league win as a small step in the right direction, then it seems rude to begrudge him.

Newcastle’s record at Stamford Bridge has been poor for a long time, but this is a Chelsea team that can lose anywhere. So it was perhaps no surprise that the procedure took a very long time to come together.

Chelsea scored in the seventh minute, but even that did not get the game going. Newcastle had a fair amount of possession – perhaps more than they expected – but didn’t do a whole lot with it. Chelsea, on the other hand, lacked the authority to really capitalize on their early lead.

Still, it was a valuable goal. Chelsea’s last match – a 2-2 draw with Brentford a week ago Saturday – was marked by the away fans signing insulting songs about Pochettino. An early goal was therefore particularly welcome.

Cole Palmer, probably the best player in the game early on, started the move from deep by supplying right-back Axel Disasi down that side. Disasi was allowed to make good progress and when he crossed to the first post, the ball was not cleared properly by Sven Botman.

It was Palmer who then regained possession, but his low shot across goal didn’t look powerful enough to trouble Martin Dubravka in the Newcastle goal.

However, Jackson would exert a decisive influence. Standing with his back to goal, he connected with the kind of back-kick that normally doesn’t come off, but it was enough to send the ball into the corner to Dubravka’s right.

On the sidelines, Howe looked bewildered and things quickly got worse. Anthony Gordon, watched here by Engand manager Gareth Southgate, hurt his knee and after doing his best to play himself fully mobile again, he eventually succumbed and was replaced by Jacob Murphy in the 36th minute.

Not much else had happened at that point. Palmer and Jackson both had low shots which were saved by Dubravka, while Isak failed to connect with a cross which was smashed across goal by the Newcastle substitute.

But just as half-time was in sight, Chelsea’s soft center emerged again.

Defender Trevor Chalobah failed to clear a throw and when Bruno Guimaraes picked up the pieces he brilliantly managed to guide the ball to Isak on the left.

The Swede still had a lot to do, but opened his body well to shift the ball to the right and curl it past Djordje Petrovic into the far corner.

That had everything to do with a transformative goal for Newcastle. They hadn’t played well at all, but Chelsea’s mental state is such that they are struggling to deal with adversity collectively.

Newcastle even almost took the lead in the opening moments of the second half when Miguel Almiron held off Malo Gusto and drove a rising shot towards goal that Petrovic touched with both hands.

It was certainly a better game by now. Palmer was still a threat down Chelsea’s right and his low cross flew over the goal in the 53rd minute. Two minutes later, Raheem Sterling found the side netting from a corner.

As the hour approached, the game got better and better. This was more like it and soon got its third goal and possibly its best. Once again there was a mistake from Newcastle as Dan Burn was unnecessarily taken out of the game.

But when the throw-in was funneled by Moises Caicedo to Enzo Fernandes and on to Palmer, he hit a poor, low, left-footed shot past Dubravka from 22 yards.

Burn made amends for his mistake almost immediately, pulling back to block a Sterling shot on the line after the Chelsea winger was clear and rounded Dubravka.

Things did not get better for Newcastle in the period that followed. Burn soon added to Howe’s injury problems after he fell and felt pain in his back. He was replaced by Emil Krafth.

Despite this, Newcastle did not lie down. They played with spirit, but the more they pushed for the goal they needed now, the more vulnerable they made themselves at the other end.

They were brutally exposed in the 76th minute as Chelsea put the game to bed. Jackson escaped down the left, passed the ball to Conor Gallagher and when Mudryk arrived to clear it off his toe, the Ukrainian passed Fabian Schar and then Dubravka to slot the ball into an empty net.