Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has instructed Steve Bruce to set his Newcastle United side out to defend at home to Chelsea on Saturday, otherwise the Toon will be torn apart by Frank Lampard’s Blues.
Nicholas has no reservations that Bruce adhering to his advice would frustrate the St. James’ Park faithful, but is concerned that Chelsea’s strength on the break would be enough for the South West Londoners to run riot on Tyneside if the Magpies allow them to find pockets of space to attack in.
Chelsea will be arriving at St. James’ Park for the evening kick-off fourth in the Premier League standings, despite failing to take successive top-flight wins since the start of November.
Inconsistency creeping in at Stamford Bridge is another potential cause for concern in Nicholas’ opinion, as Lampard and his men will be keen to avoid dropping further points with Manchester United only five points behind in fifth.
“I have never seen injuries like it at Newcastle,” Nicholas noted in his column for Sky Sports. “It may have been Rochdale [in the FA Cup], but Steve Bruce wanted his side to get through. He is not particularly fighting a relegation battle but how things could materialise could mean that they end up doing so. There is still a lot of work to [be] done.
“Newcastle are sitting on 26 points and may need 40 to survive – we are looking at around four wins and two draws. They may have to play this like an away game. The fans will not like it, but they are down to the bare bones. Chelsea are strong away from home and can hit on the counter-attack if Newcastle leave that option open.
“Chelsea will want to keep the gap to Wolves, Manchester United, Sheffield United, Tottenham and Arsenal. They will not want to go too inconsistent, as they will be concerned again.”
Would you bemoan Bruce playing defensively at home to Chelsea?
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Only Leicester City (six) and Tottenham Hotspur (five) have scored more goals through counter-attacks than Chelsea have (four) in the Premier League after 22 games, per WhoScored data, while the Stamford Bridge outfit also rank fourth for open play goals with 27.
Each of Chelsea’s four counter-attack goals have also come on their travels, while we have allowed the second-most counter-attack goals to be scored against us when playing at home with two – one fewer than Burnley.
By those figures, while it will not be pretty, Bruce adhering to Nicholas’ advice may be worthwhile for our chances of taking anything against Chelsea on Saturday.
Nicholas has backed the Blues to beat the Toon 3-1.
In other Newcastle United news, a rumoured target is ‘getting ready to say goodbye’ to his current side ahead of a January switch to St. James’ Park.