Half time: CFC 0 NUFC 0

73 mins Combination play between Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi saw the latter pass sideways across the United area, for Marcos Alonso to sweep home a low drive that Martin Dubravka got a hand to but couldn't prevent going in his net in front of the Matthew Harding Stand 0-1

Full time: CFC 1 NUFC 0

Steve Bruce said:

"Eight points from the first nine is not breathtakingly good, but considering the games we've had, who we've played, we'll move on from there. We've had a tough start. After nine games, we've played against the top six. 

It's been relentless in that respect, but there were a lot of positives today. We've now got a run of games against teams who are going to be in and around us. Hopefully we can get a few points.

"I couldn’t ask for any more effort - the big thing, where we have to improve, is in the last third. We had some unbelievable opportunities in the first half and took the wrong option, the wrong pass.

"Chelsea have a nice blend of youth and experience at the moment. We didn't weather the storm in the second half. I thought we gave as good as we got. 

"I thought it was a foul on Joelinton in the lead up the goal, and we never really regained possession after that. When you come to Chelsea, you need those decisions to go your way.

"We had a few tired bodies: Allan (Saint-Maximin), it’s only his second game and he tired; (Miguel) Almiron has been all over the place, so we tried to freshen it up in that area. But, we weren’t just quite good enough on the day.

"Almiron, unfortunately, for all his good work, his confidence is a little bit low at the minute because he hasn’t scored a goal since he came here in January. However, his work rate, effort and endeavour is there for everybody to see. He just needs to get a goal.

"Joelinton got a nasty bang to the head but he should be OK. The rest of the players, I think, are OK."

Frank Lampard said:

"We feel like we're a good team in good form, and show it. It's not easy for anybody to break down 10 players, well organised and willing to work as they were. We had to work at it, and we were ready to take the spaces as they opened up.

"I'm delighted. It was a tough match today. Credit to Newcastle: you can see why they have had a couple of big results this year. They are organised, they have men behind the ball, they are a threat on the counter-attack, and in the first half, albeit we created a couple of chances, we were a bit safe, a bit slow. 

We did move the ball from side to side but not with enough risk to sometimes take people out of the game and that was the message at half-time. 

In the second half, for the majority of it we did that. Our combinations were good, we played between the lines more, people were going one-v-one – Callum Hudson-Odoi, Willian and Christian Pulisic when he came on - and it should have been more goals to make the last 10 minutes more comfortable.

"The second half was the most pleasing thing. It was a good test for us today. We changed things a little in the second half and we showed a little more flexibility and creativity.

"We were upbeat, we had urgency, the tempo was good, and that got us the win. We want to score goals. You can see the fans - I think they're happy with what they're seeing at the moment. 

"We want more - if we want to keep moving up, we can do better. So far this season, though, things are going well."

Shot-shy Newcastle once again left Stamford Bridge empty-handed on Saturday, Chelsea rousing themselves sufficiently to score the goal that was always going to be enough to ensure victory.

That breakthrough came 17 minutes from full time, former mackem loanee Marcos Alonso silencing abuse from the away section by sending a low drive beyond the grasp of Martin Dubravka.

And although the United ended the game with both Andy Carroll and Dwight Gayle on the field, a failure to muster any threat to the home goal left Steve Bruce's side back in the bottom three. 

Returning to action for the first time since the 1-0 home victory over Manchester United, Newcastle retained the starting XI from that game, meaning that the Longstaff brothers kept their place and Jonjo Shelvey had to be content with a place on the bench.

United reached half time scoreless with relative ease, Chelsea's lack of attacking menace matched by some decent approach work by the visitors but nothing to remotely trouble home custodian Kepa.

Some decent combination play between Joelinton, Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron had raised hopes of a breakthrough. However the Brazilian could only put his header wide, the Frenchman's drive also missed the target and the Paraguayan opted play an extra pass rather than shoot when the opportunity beckoned.

There was to be no moment of inspiration to match a performance that was otherwise equivalent to the win over Manchester United; honest but uninspiring.

Having focused on attacking down their left flank where Callum Hudson-Odoi tested DeAndre Yedlin during the first half, Chelsea tried their luck on the right after the break and the pressure became more sustained. 

Tammy Abraham's 56th minute header grazed the crossbar and he headed over from another corner before Dubravka made a vital block to deny newly-arrived replacement Christian Pulisic.

Having warmed up for most of the afternoon, Carroll was preferred to Gayle as the first replacement but rather than replacing Joelinton, it was Almiron who gave way. That left Carroll to lead the attack with Joelinton out to his left, a position he was familiar with during his Bundesliga days.

Before that change could take effect though, Chelsea scored the goal that in truth had been coming for some time; Willian starting to exploit the space as his side assumed control of the midfield.

That increasing dominance of the centre of the park had been aided by a first half injury to Ross Barkley, whose meagre contribution was soon eclipsed by replacement Mateo Kovacic.

Thoughts that this was shaping up into an off day for Frank Lampard's men and we could manage to hold them at 0-0 or even steal a winner lasted 73 minutes. At that point, Hudson-Odoi's pass across the box fell to Alonso and his low drive from the left edge of the box eluded Dubravka.

Our response was tepid in the extreme; possession routinely lost, passes uniformly careless and even resorting to route one effectively beyond us.

Jetro Willems missed horribly with a first-time shot and what proved to be the best chance saw Ciaran Clark nodding just over in the final seconds - Gayle clearly unhappy that his defensive colleague went for goal rather than head across the six yard box where Gayle was free.

The full time whistle saw Steve Bruce left in the same position as his predecessors Rafa Benitez and Steve McClaren - leaving Stamford Bridge empty-handed and tasked with making his side more of an attacking unit over the coming weeks, while we're still to be cast adrift.

There seems to be an opportunity to do that when Wolves visit Tyneside next Sunday, on the back of what will be their ninth Europa League tie of the season on Thursday- this one away in Slovakia.

Precisely how Bruce achieves that remains to be seen, but the lack of mobility demonstrated by Carroll in his cameo here doesn't make him an obvious candidate to start. What price a Gayle/ Joelinton combination? 

Nine games in then and we've scored five times, kept three clean sheets and collected eight points, compared to last season's tally of six goals, two shutouts but just two points at this stage. 

Last season we were blaming the absence of the unfit Rondon and lamenting the fact that our other main striker Ayoze Perez was yet to get off the mark. Then as now, our striking options look better on paper than on grass..... 

It's all very well to bemoan the fixture programme giving us a tough start, but our better results and performances so far have come against top six sides. 

Having failed to beat Watford and Brighton, it remains to be seen whether we've developed under the leadership of Bruce as we face some supposedly "lesser" teams over the coming weeks.

Biffa