18 mins A goal of stunning simplicity spanning four passes: Aaron Ramsdale bowled the ball out to Malick Thiaw to his right, just outside the Newcastle box. His short pass infield found Tino Livramento and he had ample time to push forward as Mamadou Sarr made a half-hearted attempt to follow.

Reaching the centre circle, Livramento released Joe Willock, whose forward run down the centre of the field took him clear of Reece James. Reaching the Chelsea box and with Sanchez off his line but pausing and James catching him up, Joe moved the ball to his left rather than attempting a shot.

That played in Anthony Gordon, whose first touch was slightly clumsy, but still gave him the opportunity to run the ball into the unattended net from the left corner of the six yard box.

Gordon's finish echoed his first Toon goal, at the same end in May 2023. Just one team mate was on the pitch for both, Sven Botman. The other nine who started that were all absent or gone: messrs Dubravka, Trippier, Schar, Targett Guimaraes, Anderson, Almiron, Isak and Saint-Maximin. 1-0

Half time: Chelsea 0 Newcastle 1

Full time: Chelsea 0 Newcastle 1

Eddie Howe said:

"As I said on Friday, I wasn't aware the record was that bad here for us, so it's nice to end that and get the win on so many levels today.

"That was such an important victory with what we have coming up ahead this week with the two massive games (Barcelona and the mackems).

"It's great to go into those games with the good feeling that we have. And I thought the mentality, the effort today was very, very good. You mentioned the mentality and effort.

"He was elected as part of the leadership group by the players themselves, and I think that's the biggest accolade you can get.

"With all the other guys missing, it was his turn to lead the team, and that'll be a magical moment for him, being a Newcastle fan as a child. I'm delighted for him.”

On Sandro Tonali:

"He was feeling unwell after training yesterday. It quickly became apparent that he would not be able to travel.

"Fingers crossed it follows a similar pattern with the other illnesses we've had and it is a quick recovery. There has been something going around now for two or three weeks in the squad and hopefully this is the same."

Liam Rosenior said:

"The result isn't the one we wanted. We just lacked the cutting edge today. At the moment, the lads aren't getting what they deserve. We need to find ways to have more quality in the final third.

"In the first 15 minutes we found Cole (Palmer) and Joao (Pedro) in really good positions.

"The goal knocked the wind out of our sails. Football's about momentum and that goal gave them momentum. We tried to find a tactical solution rather than a personnel solution, and we didn't do that this evening.

"Things aren't always as great as you think they are when they're going well, and things aren't always as bad as they are when you're going through a difficult spell. I can't remember Rob (Sanchez) having much to do (although NUFC had five shots on target to Chelsea's three).

"We need to make sure the players recover. We need to monitor them and see who's fresh."

On the bizarre pre-match centre spot huddle that surrounded the referee:

"I'm going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players. I'm respectful to the game. My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership.

"That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition.

"We had a meeting with the referee (before the game), my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle. He says about when I complained about Arsenal being in our half, it wasn't the goalkeeper coach that was in our half. People were at that game at Arsenal, I said what I said. We're not being disrespectful to the opposition.

"If Paul (Tierney) had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, we have a penalty today. I don't think anybody in this room can say that (Nick) Woltemade doesn't kick Cole Palmer down in the box (hopefully someone in the room did, as he clearly doesn't....)

"So let's focus on the things that are important. My team showing unity is not as important as getting the decisions right on the pitch.

"I didn't speak to Paul (Tierney) today or his officials. I thought it wasn't the right thing to do today. But I'll be speaking to PGMO.

"I'll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today. We were told in the rule book it's about timing. You can be where you want on timing.

"I just want to find a solution to this because we're actually talking about something that's nowhere near as important as what's happening on the pitch."

On conceding the winning goal:

"There’s a tactical issue. It’s a new way of pressing. We don’t step on the press and then we don’t cover in the position that we should have done. Mistakes happen. They had nothing in the game and we gave them a goal. It feels like every mistake we're making is ending up in the back of the net".