**_LONDON_**: Newcastle have profited perhaps decisively from the failure of the strategy of Chelsea and manager Enzo Maresca to rest the seniors while the youngsters reached the Conference League final.
Chelsea had disposed easily of Djurgardens in midweek but Newcastle and their passionate St James’ Park fans proved much tougher opposition as the two Premier rivals fought for a decisive advantage in the multi-club battle for the remaining Champions League slots. Now light is slowly emerging through the clouds of speculation.
The failure of champions Manchester City to beat relegated Southampton on Saturday had beckoned everyone else to capitalise. In the end, however, it was Newcastle who pressed on up behind Liverpool and Arsenal after a 2-0 win aided by a first-half red card for Blues striker Nicolas Jackson.
Newcastle must still go next to Arsenal but the satisfying prospect for their Saudi owners is that Champions League qualification can be sealed at home to Everton on the last day of the season. That conclusion will go a long way towards helping Newcastle fight off interest in both Guimaraes and top scorer Alex Isak.
One point from those two games may be enough for Newcastle but manager Eddie Howe will not relax. He said: “It’s a massive win for us but we know lots of twists and turns could be around the corner. We can’t sit back, we have to drive forward. Look at how tight it is with so many teams around us.
“The players have been magnificent in keeping their focus for a long, long time, but we go again next week and the aim is to get as many points as we can.”
Goals at the beginning and end of the match from Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes lifted Newcastle to third place on 66 points, one ahead of City with Chelsea fifth. Aston Vill are level on points but have a massively inferior goal difference of +7 compared with Chelsea’s +19. Nottingham Forest wasted a magnificent opportunity to overtake both after being held 2:2 at home in a regional derby by more doomed opponents in Leicester.
Chelsea were unsettled crucially at conceding a second-minute goal to Tonali and then by Jackson’s dismissal for an elbow on Sven Botman. Desperation saw them raise their game too late. Fine saves from Nick Pope denied Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernandez before the Guimaraes decider.
Maresca, whose future depends more on Chelsea qualifying for the Champions League than winning the Europa League, thought the pressure of the occasion ultimately overwhelming.
He said: “To play this team in this stadium is already complicated. If you give them one extra player, it’s even more difficult. If the referee decides a red card then it’s a red card but on some decisions in this stadium, sometimes it’s the noise which decides if it’s a foul or not.”
Chelsea must now host Manchester United before a potentially decisive visit to Nottingham Forest on the final day.
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