It may sound sentimental, but the manner in which a team lose does matter. When Newcastle United conceded in the 29th minute, Michael Essien taking advantage of a flapping defence, the home team’s fans gleefully chanted “you’ll get the sack in the morning” to Sam Allardyce, the Newcastle manager. And at that moment the sack seemed imminent. However, there is a huge difference between trailing 1-0 and losing 2-1, especially if the late winning goal should have been disallowed.

Allardyce was able to leave Stamford Bridge with his head held high; his team had battled to draw level and were astonished and angered by Mike Riley’s decision to allow Salomon Kalou’s goal, scored from an offside position. The Newcastle players looked as if they cared and their supporters opted to bray with them rather than at them. But in some senses this was a mirage. Newcastle exhibited character, bustling their way to an equaliser through Nicky Butt’s shot and Wayne Bridge’s deflection, but Chelsea were far superior and deserved victory.

A case could be made that Avram Grant’s team were so short of first-choice players that Newcastle’s defeat was less, not more, acceptable. Not that the Chelsea supporters would agree. There is nothing sentimental about their attitude towards Grant. As he juggled his pack of Blist defenders and strikers, they aimed a barbed “you don’t know what you’re doing” at the man who took on the unenviable task of replacing José Mourinho.

He must have been tempted to shout the same words back at them. Had they not looked at who was on the pitch? Had they not heard about Frank Lampard’s thigh injury? Do they not understand how important Didier Drogba is to the team? This time last year Mourinho explained that it was practically impossible to cope if John Terry and Petr Cech were unavailable. On Saturday, Grant had no Cech, no Terry, no Ricardo Carvalho and no Carlo Cudicini. The stark facts are that Grant has won five more points in his 14 Premier League games than Mourinho did in his final 14, his team have scored nine more goals and have suffered a far deeper injury crisis.

Grant explained the fans’ reaction in terms of overexcitement. “They saw we were playing good football and were thinking it would be 3-0 to us. Then suddenly it was back to 1-1,” the first-team coach said. “They want to win. We’ve had so much bad news. The good news is that we’ve won a game like that. The fans have been reminding me about what happened last Christmas, that because we had injuries we couldn’t cope and lost too many points. I think they were just excited at the situation.”

Perhaps they were bemused to see Michael Ballack captaining the team or surprised that Hilário was composed in goal or puzzled that Shaun Wright-Phillips did not let his head drop. There seems to be a feeling that it may all go wrong at any moment; that the African Cup of Nations will affect Chelsea more than their rivals for the title. So far, though, Grant has weathered the storm and has done so more masterfully than his predecessor.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Hilário 6 – J Belletti 6, Alex 6, T Ben-Haim 6, W Bridge 6 – M Essien 6, M Ballack 6 (sub: S Sinclair, 76min), J O Mikel 6 – S Wright-Phillips 6 (sub: S Sidwell, 90), S Kalou 7, J Cole 5 (sub: C Pizarro, 65 5). Substitutes not used: R Taylor, P Ferreira.Booked: Alex. Next: Fulham (a).

Newcastle United (4141): S Given 7 – H Beye 6, S Taylor 6, C Caçapa 6, C N’Zogbia 6 – A Faye 6 – J Milner 5, N Butt 6, A Smith 5 (sub: D Rozehnal, 70 5), D Duff 5 (sub: M Viduka, 89) – O Martins 5 (sub: M Owen, 74).Substitutes not used: S Harper, Emre Belözoglu. Booked: Faye, Given, Butt, N’Zogbia. Next: Manchester City (h).

Referee M Riley
Attendance 41,751