Newcastle United vs. Chelsea, Premier League: Half-time report

The hoodoo-breaking is not going very well so far.  Thanks to  Ayoze Perez's rather wonderful finish, Newcastle are up 1-0.  And they could've been up even more.

Chelsea started decently enough, but after the promise of the first few minutes, this has descended into our usual crap showing at St James' Park.  Remy has been useless, Pedro as well.  We're trying to finesse our way through the congested middle — the only danger we've created was from out wide — or we're resorting to long shots.  Most crucially, we're losing the midfield rather worryingly, neither Matic nor Fabregas able to control much of anything at the moment.

The hosts have threatened repeatedly, though Begovic stood up excellently to their two best efforts.  Before the goal that is.  It may have been a wonderful finish, but it's unclear what Zouma was playing at.

So, obviously we'll have to do better.  This will not do.