There’s a version of [Chelsea](https://londoninsider.co.uk/tag/chelsea/) that is comfortably in the top four right now. The players are there, the system works in patches, and Liam Rosenior had won seven of his first nine league games since taking charge. That Chelsea has slowly been replaced by a different, more familiar one — possession-heavy, chance-squandering, and oddly passive against teams happy to sit back.
[Newcastle arrived at Stamford Bridge](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/38479028/chelsea-vs-newcastle-live-score-updates-premier-league/) on Saturday having lost 11 of their previous 12 league visits there. They left with a 1-0 win, their first at the ground since 2012, on the back of what Eddie Howe described as a textbook away performance.
The goal came in the 18th minute and it came with embarrassing ease. Tino Livramento found Joe Willock with a pass that split Chelsea’s entire midfield in half. Willock surged through, drew Robert Sánchez off his line, and rolled the ball to Anthony Gordon, who, according to the match analysis, “rolled it impudently over his toe then walked it into an empty net.” Chelsea had 67% possession and 21 shots to Newcastle’s six. They converted none of it.
Chelsea have now entered 30 Premier League games this season having scored 53 goals from an expected goals total of 61.55 — a gap that suggests either chronic finishing issues or a consistent failure to work the ball into high-quality positions, or both. Saturday brought another 1.43 xG with no return.
The context compounds the concern. The previous Tuesday, Chelsea had been beaten 5-2 by Paris Saint-Germain, all but ending their Champions League campaign. Saturday’s defeat dropped them to fifth, three points above sixth-placed Liverpool, with Manchester United and Aston Villa level on 51 points and eyeing a leapfrog. “I think we had that final bit missing today,” Rosenior said. The honeymoon, as Opta noted, is very much over.