CHELSEA were out of sorts again throughout a goalless first half, but found their form after the interval, when nicely taken goals from Joe Cole, Hernan Crespo and Damien Duff saw off a below-strength Newcastle team lacking England’s man of the moment, Michael Owen.

Recent results had come as something of a shock for the champions, with elimination from the Carling Cup at home to Charlton Athletic followed by back-to-back defeats against Real Betis and Manchester United, and Stamford Bridge was not its usual cocky, raucous self until Cole settled the crowd’s nerves with the first goal, in the 47th minute.

Well before that stage, Newcastle were hard done by when Mark Halsey, the referee who failed to punish Grimsby Town’s Justin Whittle for elbowing Alan Shearer, refused them an obvious penalty for John Terry’s scything tackle on Lee Bowyer. Their sense of injustice was fuelled when they had a second appeal turned down, Frank Lampard appearing to handle the ball well inside the area.

Chelsea are back on track then, but for a long time they had only one tactic: get the ball wide and cross it. For most of the match, there was not much by way of constructive passing movement, and when the crosses did come in, they were generally wide of the target.

After their recent stutter, and with Wednesday’s Champions League tie away to Anderlecht in mind, Jose Mourinho rotated his star-studded squad and started without four regulars: Didier Drogba (suspended), Michael Essien, William Gallas and Paulo Ferreira. In their absence, opportunity knocked for Glen Johnson, who failed to take advantage, plus Crespo and Eidur Gudjohnsen, who did.

Essien’s rest lasted all of 13 minutes, at which point he was called on to replace Claude Makelele, who injured a knee in making a typically robust challenge on Scott Parker. One man who is never rested, of course, is Lampard, who equalled David James’s record of 159 consecutive Premiership appearances. He marred the occasion with a booking late on, but made his usual thoroughly effective contribution, producing the final pass for Crespo’s goal.

For Newcastle, the omens weren’t good. They arrived without a win in 16 previous visits to the Bridge, or even a goal in their past four, and were without not only the talismanic Shearer but also Owen, the “Lion of Geneva”, absent with groin trouble.

Their midfield anchor man, Parker, was always in for a busy afternoon against his former club, and was not found wanting. The men in the famous zebra stripes could scarcely believe their ill fortune when they were denied two penalties in the first ten minutes. Graeme Souness was apoplectic when Terry got away with taking Bowyer’s legs instead of the ball close in.

“It looked like a penalty to me, and Bowyer was adamant that it was,” the Newcastle manager said. Had he asked the referee about it? “I don’t do that, you don’t get any sense out of them,” he snorted. Struggling to find any sort of rhythm or cohesion, Chelsea should nevertheless have scored after 18 minutes, when Ricardo Carvalho rose unchallenged to meet Duff’s free kick eight yards out, only to head horribly wide.

The chance sparked intermittent pressure from the league leaders, but they failed to translate a sudden glut of possession into anything worthwhile. Mourinho preferred to credit the opposition rather than criticise his own players, saying: “We were not playing well in the first half because Newcastle were. They gave us a difficult game.”

Crespo did manage to scramble the ball into the net in the 35th minute, but his supplier, Duff, had strayed offside. Cole let fly, but Celestine Babayaro, playing against his old club, was in smartly to deflect the shot behind, and from the consequent corner, taken by Duff, a glancing header from Asier Del Horno was inches wide of the far post. At half-time the honours belonged to Newcastle, but within two minutes of the resumption Chelsea were ahead, courtesy of a misplaced pass from the hapless Titus Bramble.

Gudjohnsen fastened on to it and from the edge of the centre circle delivered a pass that invited Cole to run through in the inside-right channel. The England midfielder did so with pace and purpose before scoring with a crisp shot. Newcastle’s obdurate defence had cracked, and after 51 minutes the margin was doubled by a lovely finish from Crespo. Essien originated the move, winning possession from Nolberto Solano before transferring it to Lampard, on the edge of the

‘D’. From there, the England man’s expertly weighted pass enabled Crespo to embarrass Bramble before curling his shot inside Given’s left-hand post.

Charles N’Zogbia gave the Geordie contingent belated reason to warm their hands with a rising 20-yarder that Peter Cech was happy to tip over. But the last word went to Chelsea, in the 90th minute, when Duff, out on the left, stepped inside Peter Ramage before scoring with a shot from 17 yards that deflected in off Parker. Souness said: “I didn’t think there was a great deal between the two teams, other than the fact we made two defensive ricks.”

Mourinho, asked about his reported contratemps with Crespo, replied: “It was suggested that he was injured playing for Argentina and that I ordered him to come home. The injury was cramp and I didn’t. He came back on Thursday and there were no problems as far as I was concerned.”

After yesterday’s match, the Chelsea manager refused to speak to the daily newspapers that had reported the “row”.

STAR MAN: Joe Cole (Chelsea)

Player ratings: Chelsea: Cech 6, Johnson 5 (Gallas, 60min 6), Carvalho 6, Terry 6, Del Horno 6, Makelele 5 (Essien, 13min 6), Gudjohnsen 8, Lampard 7, Cole 8, Crespo 7 (Wright-Phillips, 80min 5), Duff 7

Newcastle United: Given 5, Babayaro 5, Boumsong 5, Bramble 4, Ramage 5, N’Zogbia 5, Bowyer 6, Emre Belozoglu 5, Solano 5 (Chopra, 70min 5), Ameobi 5

Scorers: Chelsea: Cole 47, Crespo 51, Duff 90

Referee: M Halsey

Attendance: 42,268

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