Next Saturday, 6th of December 2014, José Mourinho’s super new Chelsea will travel North to measure forces with Newcastle at the emblematic St. James’ Park for round 15 of the English Premier League, on a match that will certainly present another important test for the Blues’ almost flawless campaign so far this season.

After a somewhat surprising draw against Sunderland over weekend, Chelsea took a deep breath and continued their splendorous walk towards the EPL title as they’ve smashed Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, on what was a fairly entertaining London derby last Wednesday night. The Spurs started the match at a good pace and created a couple of goal chances but it was the Blues who scored first, when Hazard, assisted by Didier Drogba, “invented” some space inside the box and placed the ball in Lloris’ net with a powerful effort from close range. Chelsea regained control of the match and, only three minutes later, the Ivorian sharpshooter, Drogba, escaped the claws of Jan Vertonghen to score the second, giving the Blues a solid advantage in the match with just 22 minutes in the first-half. The third and last Chelsea’s goal only arrived in the second-half when the versatile French forward, Loic Remy, wrecked the Spurs’ defence line and easily beat a hopeless Hugo Lloris.

Chelsea “offered” Spurs the possibility of circulating the ball around for long periods of the match, opting instead for quick and pinpointing counter-attacks designed to make the most out of the opponents’ defensive mistakes, something that, once again, worked perfectly. The Blues only had 38% of ball possession but, at the same time, they managed to place eight shots on goal against just two from the Spurs. Chelsea’s game tends to be fairly effective, a clear trademark of José Mourinho, who has already and successfully tried this style both with FC Porto and Inter Milan.

The clash at St. James’ Park will certainly be very demanding for the Blues and, although Newcastle failed to win their recent two matches, they will surely offer the current league leaders fierce competition.

As for Newcastle, after their fairly modest EPL start, they initiated a fantastic recovery last month, which has helped the team to climb several positions on the league table. Alan Pardew, who was severely criticized both by media and supporters early this season, managed to motivate his players after several underachieving results and the team entered, let’s say, a golden period, which only ended last weekend at Boleyn Ground, when the Magpies were defeated by West Ham.

Despite Newcastle’s recent recovery, the league leaders, Chelsea, are firm favourites to win next Saturday’s match, as José Mourinho’s boys will surely want to maintain their six point advantage over Manchester City for a long time.

Newcastle

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - DLWWW

Chelsea

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WDWWW

Possible Line-ups

Newcastle (4-2-3-1) – Elliot - Janmaat - Dummett - Taylor - Haidara- Tiote - Abeid - Gouffran - Perez - Cabella - Cissé

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

Prediction

Newcastle 1 Chelsea 2