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Newcastle United’s win over Chelsea turned on a huge moment ten minutes from half-time as the visitors were reduced to ten men.
The Magpies were leading 1-0 at the time thanks to Sandro Tonali’s very early opener, with Chelsea’s hopes of getting themselves back into the clash delivered a hammer blow when Nicolas Jackson was dismissed. Initially shown a yellow card by referee John Brooks, that was upgraded to a red following intervention by VAR as they deemed his collision with Sven Botman was ‘serious foul play’.
Jackson was booed off the pitch by the St James’ Park crowd as his side were forced to play with ten men for 55 minutes. Jackson will now miss Chelsea’s last two games of this season and their first outing next year.
Enzo Maresca’s view on Nicolas Jackson red card
Maresca was forced to shuffle his pack at the beginning of the second half following Jackson’s dismissal, with Reece James coming on in place of Noni Madueke. The tactical switch worked but the Blues had a mountain to climb and were punished by Bruno Guimaraes in the dying stages.
The Italian, though, feels that whilst the St James’ Park crowd did not have an effect on Brooks’ decision to upgrade the booking to a red card, it may have swayed a few other decisions in the game: “It’s already difficult 11 v 11 in this stadium, against this team. Playing one hour with 10 players has not been easy,” Maresca said post-match.
“I think the second half the team showed spirit, togetherness. I think it is from there we need to keep the same feeling, same energy for Friday’s game.
“The only thing I can say is that sometimes it’s too easy to take some decision in some stadiums. If the referee decides for red it’s a red.
“Some times in this stadium you have the feeling that some decisions are from the noise. Again, if the referee decides it’s a red card, it’s a red card.”
Marc Cucurella’s red card reaction
Marc Cucurella left Tyneside as the pantomime villain of the day, having been involved in a number of dramatic incidents during a fractious 90 minutes. The Spaniard believes his side could have took a result from the north east 11v11, but is hopeful they can react in their final two league games of the season against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.
“He [Jackson] didn’t say anything,” he said. “I think he’s a bit upset. He wants to help the team but these things happen.
“Maybe with 11 players all the game maybe we can do the comeback. Things can happen. Now we can’t do anything and we need to learn about this.
“All of the players are important. Now we lose Nico for the next games. It’s a big mistake but the good thing is we have other players ready.
“All of us, we need to be important. Now is the moment to forget this game and think about the next one.”
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