Chelsea’s disintegrating season took a turn for the worse after they went down 2-1 to Newcastle on Sunday courtesy of one of the most spectacular goals of Alan Shearer’s long career.
Joe Cole gave Chelsea an early lead with his first goal for the club but Shola Ameobi was on target for Newcastle before Shearer settled matters with a long-range bullet just after half-time that drew rich praise from both coaches.
Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri said: ”You can’t do anything about goals like that.”
And his Newcastle counterpart, Bobby Robson, agreed: ”It must be one of the best that Alan has ever scored. It would have been a blur to the ‘keeper.”
Just days after falling 3-1 behind to Monaco in the Champions League semifinals, Chelsea faded badly and squandered the opportunity to open up a four-point gap on Manchester United in the battle for second place.
To make matters worse for Chelsea, their defeat allowed London rivals Arsenal to wrap up the Premiership title after a 2-2 draw at Tottenham later in the day.
For Newcastle, the three points moved them level on points with Liverpool in fourth place with a game in hand over their rivals for the final qualifying place for next season’s Champions League. The two sides are shaping up for a showdown at Anfield on the final day of the season.
Chelsea’s multimillion-pound squad have failed to win in five league games and Ranieri’s future looks increasingly bleak after a week in which his substitutions were blamed for the defeat in Monaco.
But the Italian refused to criticise his players’ performance.
”I don’t want to think about that,” he said. ”I am very, very focused and I hope my players are focused as well. I don’t want excuses.
”I am very pleased with our performance after the game against Monaco. They reacted very well and we deserved a point. It was a strange match because we scored very early and had chances to score again at least three times.”
Cole gave Chelsea the lead after five minutes and Ameobi equalised in the 43rd minute before Shearer’s winner three minutes into the second half.
John Terry hit the post with a marvellous chance for Chelsea in stoppage time and Ranieri said: ”I think we could have played another two hours without scoring. Sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. We just need a little bit more luck.”
Robson was delighted with his response of his players after going behind, singling out Shearer and Ameobi for their goals and goalkeeper Shay Given for a superb second-half save from Eidur Gudjohnsen.
He said: ”It was an epic. It was an enthralling and fantastic game between two very good sides. Chelsea got off to a very good start when we were poor, but we recovered well and scored two beautiful goals. You will wait a long time before you see two goals like that in a game.
”It was very important to win here because it keeps us in contention for fourth place. Now it will go to the end of the season because there is nothing between the teams.”
However, there was a major setback for Newcastle after the game when they discovered that Jonathan Woodgate, their in-form defender, will be sidelined for the rest of the season because of a thigh strain suffered late in the game.
Woodgate should, however, be available for England in the European Championships this summer. — Sapa-AFP