Chelsea give reality check

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Newcastle 0, Chelsea 2

ONE OF Alan Shearer’s first big decisions as Newcastle United’s manager was made for all the right reasons but, with hindsight, it now looks horribly wrong. It came shortly before 3pm on Saturday when, rather than stride towards the centre circle, hold his arms aloft and maybe blow a few kisses, Shearer tip-toed straight from tunnel to dug-out.

No fan of meaningless posturing, the former England captain has never been into show-boating but it was probably required to help a strangely passive crowd rediscover their once passionate voice. The anti-climatic atmosphere flatlined along with Newcastle’s performance.

Shearer, however, does not do regrets. “It was a disappointing day but, no, I would never have gone out on the pitch beforehand. I don’t think it would have been right. I wanted to take the whole thing away from that,” he said. “There’s been enough said, written and sung about myself in the last few days.”

Chelsea were grateful for such reticence. Tellingly, Guus Hiddink had devoted much of his team-talk to the need to “drain energy” from what was expected to be a fervently partisan audience, with patient, possession football.

“First and foremost we needed to keep the crowd quiet, that was the key,” said the excellent Frank Lampard, later described as “the tops” by Hiddink who, apart from dominating midfield opened the scoring with a header after Nicolas Anelka’s shot rebounded off the crossbar.

“The crowd wasn’t as loud as I expected though,” said Lampard. “It was a bit quiet, I don’t know why. But to stay in the title race we needed to win and we did everything we could to keep the crowd out of the equation.

“The Newcastle fans did not build up a head of steam and that was always going to be the way for us to win. We didn’t want the crowd to become a factor.”

Newcastle need to become more proficient at manipulating the ball before they can start controlling their fans’ emotions but Shearer feels that, right now, psychology is almost as important as tactics and technique.

“The mentality has to change,” he said. “I’m sure they’ve had everything tried with them this season already, the tellings-off and the arms round the shoulder but a different voice and different personalities might just work.”

That he faces a daunting task was reflected as he paced the touchline letting numerous expletives slip. Several were uttered in Jonas Gutierrez’s direction but the winger’s problems with accurate crossing paled into near insignificance next to Fabricio Coloccini’s defensive blunders. Typically, the Argentinian permitted Anelka to create Lampard’s opener.

“I apologise about my language but it gets frustrating. I was kicking every ball,” said Shearer who, borrowing from Bobby Robson’s and Kenny Dalglish’s, respective Newcastle managerial mantras, has stipulated that all players must lunch together on a daily basis, significantly curtail their nocturnal socialising and train on Sundays. His angst deepened after Anelka was first to Petr Cech’s long punt. The Frenchman’s headed flick prefaced Lampard’s neat touch and Florent Malouda’s adroit finish.

Although the otherwise anonymous Michael Owen was subsequently denied a goal when his shot crossed the line before Ashley Cole hooked it clear, Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s stony-faced owner, failed to raise a sympathetic clap throughout and, instead, looked thoroughly disillusioned.

Ashley had sounded out Gerard Houllier about replacing the convalescent Joe Kinnear before turning to the novice Shearer, but even the world’s most experienced manager might struggle to transform a side as short on creativity and pace as Newcastle. Not that Hiddink believes Tyneside’s latest messiah is in any way false or has inherited a completely lost cause. “Alan is very intelligent,” he said. “Alan can keep Newcastle up.”

Guardian Service