Chelsea 1-1 Newcastle United, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings

Chelsea began the final game of the season in customary fashion, on the back foot and conceding an early goal, with Anthony Gordon given the freedom of the penalty area to give Newcastle the lead inside of ten minutes. In another timeline, he might have been wearing Chelsea Blue! Alas.

Chelsea almost conceded again immediately afterwards, but we eventually grew into the game and even got an equalizer, thanks to Kieran Trippier’s own goal that turned home a Raheem Sterling cross.

We threatened to make it two but lacked the requisite final ball, while Miguel Almirón missed two glorious chances at the other end to keep things level going into the break.

Chelsea took control of the game early in the second half, but struggled to make inroads into the penalty area. Plenty of passes and possession on the periphery, but without the necessary cutting edge. We did have a couple hopeful handball shouts, but that was the closest we’d come ... until a couple glorious chances missed in the final few minutes. Wouldn’t have it any other way than missing those.

Newcastle threatened a few times on the counter, and they did skim a shot off the bar, but they were ready for summer holidays, and so is everyone else.

Carefree.

• Back-four again from Lampard, with a midfield trio of RLC, Enzo, and Gallagher. Sterling back in the lineup despite a rumored hamstring problem, in place of Mudryk.
• Ruben’s exit sure seemed like goodbye.
• Next up: offseason, Silly Season, new season
• Elsewhere, Leeds and Leicester join Southampton in going down. Everton survive.
• KTBFFH

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