The kit skips were packed and ready to go while up the road at Newcastle airport a charter plane sat on the Tarmac, its scheduled take-off slot fast approaching.
Chelsea’s London-bound squad could probably have been checked in by the time José Mourinho sauntered into the media room but he delayed things deliberately.
As with most managers visiting Newcastle United, Mourinho usually gets his interviews over as quickly as possible before racing for the flight home but on Saturday he declined to talk to newspaper reporters until Alan Pardew had concluded all media duties. With the home manager having devoted part of a TV interview to rubbishing his Chelsea counterpart’s immediate post-match suggestion that the ball boys colluded in a carefully choreographed time-wasting plot, he evidently wanted Pardew out of the way before further developing his conspiracy theory.
Clearly designed to deflect attention from the fine details of Chelsea’s first defeat of the season it was utter nonsense but like Sir Alex Ferguson in his Manchester United days Mourinho is a consummate politician well versed in the dark art of diverting unwelcome inquiries about his team’s perceived deficiencies. What better way of obscuring, among other things, the uncomfortable realities that Newcastle’s Jack Colback was the best midfielder on view and Diego Costa had been marked out of the game than by hinting at a miscarriage of justice?
The moment, late on, when a brief delay in the crowd returning the ball resulted in the visiting dugout confusing matters by throwing on a replacement had offered Mourinho the necessary ammunition. “I don’t speak about negative tactics,” he said. “I never criticise a team but you may as well have put a cow in the middle of the pitch, walking. And then stop the game because there was a cow. You cannot just do anything in football – it needs a ball, not two or zero. Do what you can to win the game but not everything.”
Pardew’s response would have been interesting but, safe in the knowledge Newcastle’s manager was long gone, Mourinho warmed to his theme. “The referee can’t punish the ball boy who disappeared with the ball. Sometimes there were two balls and it’s not possible to play with two balls. Sometimes there were zero balls and that always helps cut the dynamic of the team trying to win the game. There could have been 20 minutes’ stoppage time.”
In the event there were a somewhat excessive six extra minutes during which Chelsea failed to capitalise on Steven Taylor’s 81st-minute dismissal for a second booking and Jak Alnwick, Newcastle’s third-choice and substitute goalkeeper, continued to perform heroics.
Despite enjoying less than 40% of possession Pardew’s formidably pacy team unnerved Chelsea – and Gary Cahill in particular – on the counterattack before a pair of immaculately executed goals from Papiss Cissé put them two up.
There were also fine displays from Daryl Janmaat, Taylor (excepting those two silly yellow cards), Fabricio Coloccini, Paul Dummett, Moussa Sissoko and, above all, Alnwick. Beaten only by Didier Drogba’s late header, he coped brilliantly with a barrage of crosses and high balls as Mourinho ordered his frustrated players to adopt route one tactics. The supposed novice made fabulous saves from Costa and Filipe Luís as well as nonchalantly, but memorably, depositing a clattered Costa in a heap on the floor.
With Rob Elliot joining Tim Krul in the treatment room after succumbing at half-time to a thigh injury, Alnwick spent the second half showing Pardew why his extraordinary self-confidence is justified. “Jak came to see me before Tim got injured and said he was really disappointed in my management of him,” said Pardew, smiling. “Jak thought we’d let him down because we hadn’t loaned him out.”
Watched by his parents and girlfriend, the 21-year-old’s debut was almost surreal. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” said Alnwick. “I grew up supporting Newcastle, so coming on in front of 52,000 people was amazing and a dream come true. I was a bit nervous but it’s what I’ve been working towards. My mam hadn’t watched me play for four or five years as she gets too nervous normally, so for her to be here was massive for me. My mam and dad have supported me through all the highs and lows.”
Alnwick helped extend Mourinho’s run of never having won a league game on Tyneside but Chelsea’s manager remains undaunted by the end of his team’s 23-game unbeaten run. “Nobody’s done better than us this season,” he said. “We’re top of the league. Everybody would like to be in our position. So we’re more than fine. We’re better than anybody else.”
Man of the match Jack Colback (Newcastle United)
