Blues blue on Tyneside

St James' Park has often proved the graveyard for the ambitions and pretensions to greatness of Chelsea FC.  In the first season of the era of Roman Abramovich, Claudio Ranieri's fate was sealed by a 2-1 defeat, making it mathematically impossible for Chelsea to catch Arsenal in the Premier League title race of 2003-04.  A season later, under the all-conquering Jose Mourinho, Chelsea was looking to achieve the 'quadruple' of Premier League, European Cup, FA Cup and League Cup and seclipse Manchester United's 'treble' (Premier League, European Cup, FA Cup) in 1998-99.  At a blustery, snowy Newcastle in February, everything went wrong for the Portuguese's men, shipping an early Patrick Kluivert goal, making a triple substitution at half-time only to see Damien Duff pull up lame within minutes of the change and then to have the goalkeeper sent off in the last few minutes to finish the match with nine men.  Chelsea would fail to lift the European Cup that season too, but Manchester United fans were grateful that their unique treble would not be equalled or bettered (even if Chelsea had managed Premier League, European Cup and League Cup, it would be seen as a 'lesser treble').
And so it proved yesterday.  As recently as the match beforehand, Chelsea were being talked of the 'New Invincibles', following in Arsenal's footsteps of 2003-04 in going a Premier League campaign unbeaten ('invulnerable' would be more apt than 'invincible' as the following season, Chelsea lost one game but racked up more points than Arsenal in their so-called 'invincible' mode).  One small glitch: Mourinho had never won on the Tyne in the Premier League or FA Cup (a solitary victory in the League Cup was the aberration).  Never mind, as they just had to avoid defeat.  They had lost on the last two visits but surely this was the complete Chelsea.  Not quite, as Nemanja Matic was suspended and John Obi Mikel was a lacklustre deputy, failing to screen the back four or set up attacking runs.  Then again, Newcastle had their own issues: they started with their second-choice goalkeeper, who had to be replaced at half-time with the third choice - a 19-year old making his Premier League debut - and Steven Taylor was sent off in the 81st minute, reducing Newcastle United to ten men.  By that point, the Magpies were 2-1 ahead thanks to marksman Papiss Cisse, returning to the form of three seasons ago.  It was a nail-biting last quarter of an hour (with nearly seven minutes of injury-time, scotching Mourinho's argument about the availability of the ball from ball-boys) but the black-and-whites hung on to commemorate Alan Pardew's fourth anniversary in charge with some style and shred Chelsea's latest bid at immortality.  I was delighted with the win but would have taken a draw just so Arsenal fans couldn't crow about being the only 'Invincibles'.  Oh well, the Gunners have their own troubles at the moment to cure any hubris.