Next Saturday, 10th of January 2015, a Chelsea, hurting in their pride, will entertain Newcastle at Stamford Bridge for round 21 of the English Premier League, on a match where the London team will certainly try to avenge the defeat they suffered at St. James’ Park last December.

Chelsea have only known the sour taste of defeat twice so far this season and their upcoming opponents, Newcastle, were the first team to inflict a defeat to José Mourinho’s Blues. The London team managed to react bravely to such defeat and initiated another fantastic winning streak that was refrained first by Southampton and agin on the first day of the new year by a mighty Tottenham side that stunned Chelsea by 5-3. The White Hart Lane match was a huge blow to Chelsea’s title aspirations as they are now forced to divide the league’s leadership with Manchester City. It is fair to say that the Blues were not at their very best during the London derby and that the Spurs knew how to take advantage from the lack of concentration of Chelsea’s defence line.

José Mourinho’s boys, however, have already returned to wins last Sunday when they hosted Watford for an FA Cup match at Stamford Bridge. The Blues won the clash against the Championship side by 3-0 thanks to goals by Willian, Remy and Zouma. This solid win will certainly provide Chelsea with the necessary motivation to clinch the three points against the Magpies, who are definitely far from being enjoying a positive moment.

For that particular clash, José Mourinho will almost certainly have all his players at disposal since there aren’t current any names on the team’s injury list.

As for Newcastle, although they were the first team to defeat the Blues this season, they are having a season full of ups and downs. The departure of their manager, Alan Pardew, last week left the team adrift in Premier League’s sea of madness and, although the media have already pointed out some names to replace Pardew, including Coloccini, so far nothing appears to be certain. After a compromising 3-3 home draw against Burnley, the Toon were surprised at King Power Stadium by Leicester for the FA Cup last Saturday.

Chelsea are obviously firm favourites for the upcoming match against the Magpies and they will certainly not experience any major difficulties to overcome a team that is clearly underachieving this season.

Chelsea

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WLDWW

Newcastle

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LDWLL

Possible Line-ups

Chelsea (4-3-3) – Courtois - Ivanovic - Terry - Cahill - Filipe Luis - Matic - Fàbregas - Óscar - Hazard - Willian - Diego Costa

Newcastle (4-2-3-1) – Alnwick - Janmaat - Dummett - Williamson - Coloccini - Tiote - Colback - Gouffran - Perez - Sissoko - Rivière

Prediction

Chelsea 3 Newcastle 0