That's three games in the books, and Chelsea find themselves comfortably at the top of the table with a perfect nine points from their first three fixtures. Where they sit on goal differential come their next Premier League game still remains to be seen, but when they resume Premier League action on September 15th they'll be at least level on points with the top of the table. It hasn't been a bad start to the season, eh? Anyway, here are my initial thoughts from this one, with the full match report coming later on. There's also the community rating form to fill out after the jump, so let us know how you feel about everyone's performance.
- Eden Hazard takes a very short approach to his penalties. It worked (and he was 9/9 last season as well), but I much prefer the Frank Lampard approach. It was perfectly placed though, there was no saving that one.
- I think the FA needs to have a look at the Fernando Torres yellow for embellishment. There was pretty clear contact there. He made the most of the contact, but it was a clear foul.
Fernando Torres looked great taking that goal in the first half. That's the guy I remember from Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. Hopefully he sticks around for a while.
The John Obi Mikel and Raul Meireles midfield pairing was fantastic today. Outside of an awful shot from distance apiece, I didn't feel that either of the pair set a foot wrong in this one.
Chelsea have gone up a pair of goals with plenty of time to play twice this season now. They've seemed perfectly content to sit back and defend on both occasions. I might be in the minority here, but I have absolutely no issues with that. It's going to be a long season, Chelsea might as well put it into cruise control when the opportunity presents itself.
This game was the best Chelsea have looked on the whole when taking the opponent into consideration. Good defending, solid attack, they got control and then held on for the win. Newcastle are a real quality opponent, for anyone questioning how we'd do when facing off with better quality opposition, this should be a great example to look at.
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