Chelsea will hope to continue their fine record at home against Newcastle United when they welcome the Magpies to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The two sides experienced contrasting fortunes in midweek as Newcastle were only denied a deserved Champions League win over Barcelona by a 96th-minute Lamine Yamal penalty, which left them to settle for a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
A day later, Chelsea endured a difficult night at the Parc des Princes as a second-half collapse saw Liam Rosenior’s men lose 5-2 to holders Paris Saint-Germain, leaving them with a mountain to climb in Tuesday’s return leg.
But they can be confident of getting back on track against a Newcastle side with a miserable record at Stamford Bridge.
Newcastle have not won away from home against Chelsea since a stunning Papiss Cisse double gave a team then managed by Alan Pardew a 2-0 win in May 2012.
Chelsea are three points adrift of the top four, and the struggles of Premier League teams in the Champions League this week have put a potential fifth qualification spot for that competition in jeopardy.
As such, Chelsea will be well aware of the importance of continuing that excellent record against Newcastle, whose hopes of playing in next season’s Champions League likely rest on them producing a fairytale run to this season’s European title.
The Magpies are 12th, nine points behind Chelsea. If they do not win the Champions League, then their most realistic hope of European qualification will be finishing in the top eight to secure a place in the Europa League or the Conference League. However, those places are contingent on who wins the FA Cup and the potential award of that fifth Champions League spot.
Newcastle are five points adrift of seventh-placed Brentford following a dramatic late 2-1 win over Manchester United in their last Premier League encounter.
A trip to Chelsea on the back of an outstanding performance against Barcelona presents a huge challenge for Newcastle, who have played more games (48) than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues this season.
Newcastle surrendered a 2-0 lead in the reverse fixture, Reece James and Joao Pedro scoring to earn a point for the Blues at St James’ Park after a Nick Woltemade double had put the Magpies in command.
Eddie Howe’s men will be keen to atone for that missed opportunity, and he has has been impressed with how his side have switched focus following the late setback in the draw with Barcelona.
“The players have responded pretty well, I think,” Howe told his pre-match press conference.
“Of course it was big disappointment to the end of the game [but] a lot of pride in the performance overall. This season, the players have built up really good resilience to results and disappointments and successes. We’ve had to take everything in our stride, because we know we’ve got another game just around the corner and you can’t let what happened in one game affect the next.
“So we’ve tried very quickly to get our focus onto Chelsea. We know the week ahead’s a big one, but we have to concentrate on this game.
“There’s mental challenges for this game that we’re going to have to try and get right, because obviously there’ll be a lot of focus on the Barcelona game, and rightly so. But this game’s a very tough one if we’re not focused 100 per cent on Chelsea.
“They’re a good team, a dangerous team. They’ve got some very good players, so playing them away from home in its own right in the Premier League will be viewed as one of the toughest away games we’ll have. We can’t go there under-prepared so it’s a big job today to get the players ready.”
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Team news for Chelsea v Newcastle
It remains to be seen whether Estevao and Jamie Gittens will be fit enough to return from hamstring injuries. Levi Colwill (knee) is a long-term absentee for Chelsea.
Newcastle should have Anthony Gordon available to start again after he was limited to a substitute appearance against Barcelona due to illness.
This is expected to be the last game Lewis Miley misses with a muscle injury that has kept him out since January, but Bruno Guimaraes (hamstring) and Fabian Schar (ankle) will not return until next month.
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