We asked Mark Jankowski to give us his match ratings and player comments after Newcastle 2 Chelsea 2.
Ramsdale 6
Showed too much of the goal to Reece James for Chelsea’s first goal of the game (although the free-kick was perfectly placed).
He made one smart stop in the second half and his distribution was excellent during the first half.
Miley 7
He’s obviously not a long-term solution at right back, but the two performances Lewis Miley has put in this week have shown that he is more than capable of deputising there in a pinch and hopefully he can see us through until Trippier and Livramento are back fit.
Thiaw 6
He was unlucky to slip for Chelsea’s second goal.
However, he probably could have done more to initiate the physical contact with Joao Pedro rather than letting the Chelsea striker knock him off balance, to force the slip from the German.
Schar 6
Schar seemed a little bit subdued today and I didn’t really notice any of his trademark raking passes.
He wasn’t bad but he didn’t really affect the game in a big way and at times Chelsea tried to get at him with his lack of pace.
Hall 7
There didn’t seem to be any sign of the muscle tightness that kept the young man out of Wednesday’s cup win.
He was an assured presence down our left-hand side for most of the game.
He had one moment just prior to Chelsea’s second goal, where he was too busy complaining to Anthony Gordon than chasing back, but I don’t think his presence would have made any difference given the slip from Thiaw.
Bruno 7
Bruno had a great first half but seemed to tire in the second.
He did put in a huge shift midweek so you can forgive him for a little bit of fatigue.
He was still good on the ball for the majority of the game but looked to be massively running out of steam in the final 15 minutes.
Tonali 8 (MOTM)
Tonali started the game like a force of nature.
Seemed to cover every blade of grass in that first half.
He was forced into a more defensive role in the second half given Chelsea’s improvement and he made a few essential gut busting runs to cut out Chelsea counter-attacks.
Ramsey 6
Ramsey probably would have earned himself a seven had he been substituted at the appropriate time in the second half.
He ran out of steam big time in the last half an hour and for some reason was left on way too long.
I thought he was a really good performer in the first half, and okay in the second, but I still can’t understand why he wasn’t substituted earlier.
Murphy 6
He gave Cucurella lots to think about in the first half and kept him pinned back well.
However, there were numerous loose passes throughout the game from Murphy.
He performs much better when he plays within himself and doesn’t attempt overly ambitious balls.
Woltemade 8
It was fantastic to see big Nick recover from the disappointment of last Sunday.
He took both his goals excellently and really should have added a third to kill the game before half-time.
He faded quite a bit in the second half but it was his best performance for a few weeks.
Gordon 8
Anthony Gordon also failed to take a gilt-edged chance in our dominant first half and it’s hard not to look back at that as being a big missed opportunity.
However, he was instrumental in both of our goals and should have won us a penalty in the second half, when he was poleaxed by a floundering Chalobah.
Subs
Barnes 6
This was a much better performance from Barnes with lots of attacking intent and he was perhaps a little unfortunate not to score a late winner.
Bruno flashed an excellent cross to Barnes at the back post but he wasn’t able to direct the ball on target of his weaker foot.
Wissa 6
He pressed well but never really got a sniff of goal.
Wissa’s biggest contribution to the game was to slip a deftly weighted pass in behind the Chelsea backline for Harvey Barnes, who wasn’t quite able to take the shot first time, allowing James to make an excellent covering tackle.
Elanga 6
There were a few grumbles around me when Elanga was introduced and throughout his performance on the day.
However, I felt that he contributed as well as anyone else on the pitch in the final moments of the game, often leading our counter-attack charge.
He failed to hit the target with his best opportunity of the game. You could argue he could have done better but he was very entitled to take the shot on and maybe someone with a little more confidence would have found the back of the net.
Willock N/A
Not on long enough to judge.
You have seen what Mark’s thoughts on the individual Newcastle players and the ratings he has given them, please use the comments section below to give your thoughts on how each of the NUFC players performed.