Tammy Abraham’s strike gives Chelsea their fifth consecutive win

Photo: Tammy Abraham celebrates his second half strike for Chelsea who beat Newcastle 2-0 at St. James’s Park on Saturday. (Getty Images)

Chelsea continued their unbeaten run with an emphatic victory over Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Saturday. The win temporarily put Chelsea at the top of the table with 18 points, for the first time since 2018 when Maurizio Sarri was in charge. It was the third win on the spin in the league for Lampard’s men.

The Blues went into the lead within ten minutes of the first half through an own goal from Federico Fernandez. Frank Lampard’s men extended their lead through Tammy Abraham’s 64th-minute strike, which ricocheted off the post and into the back of the net.

Newcastle United started the game positively, which resulted in some early corners. However, Timo Werner got the first big chance of the game, his low powered shot was saved routinely by Karl Darlow. Tammy Abraham was also denied early in the game, off the end of a superb pass from Hakim Ziyech but he could not convert the open chance.

Abraham failed to get on the end of a Werner pass later in the game as the ball whistled across the face of goal.

Werner had his fair share of chances in the game as well. In the 30th-minute, the ball fell to him just inside the eighteen-yard box, but he scuffed his shot wide of the target.

In the 64th-minute, Chelsea finally took the chance to double their lead. Timo Werner went on a splendid dribble from inside his own half, before laying the ball off to Abraham who made no mistake this time.

Eight minutes after Chelsea’s second goal, Newcastle almost cut the deficit in half through a long-range effort from Sean Longstaff that hit the crossbar. Newcastle wasted several other chances to put pressure on Chelsea, with their shots going off target.

Chelsea end match week nine in third place, two points behind Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool who both have 20 points with Tottenham leading on goal difference.