London is Blue Dispatch #025

Even before that goal came, fissures had started to appear on Newcastle’s chassis, their engine sputtering to get them over the finish line. Kieran Trippier played only an hour against Milan six days ago and came on here with a half to go. He was not exhausted. It was the kind of cushioned header to your goalkeeper that comes off nine out of ten times. The tenth instance occurs when the mind and body choose to part ways in that split second. Trippier was anxious.

As were Newcastle. Their only shot on target in 90 minutes was the one Badiashile offered with festive charity to one of the PL’s most lethal finishers. The second came in the 91^st, which was comfortable enough for Petrovic to hold close to his fluttering heart. Newcastle’s average possession this season has been 54.4%. They like the ball. In two defeats to Liverpool and Dortmund, they had 59%. In a dominant 1-0 win over Man United, they had 58. Their worst showing in the league was when they managed 42% against Arsenal, and they still won 1-0. Here, they had 22%, their lowest tally in the league since they lost 3-0 to us in the league 781 days ago. Newcastle also average the third least clearances in the Premier League this season with 15.9. Last night, they touched a frantic 30.

In essence, Newcastle were rattled. Conceding 15 shots and managing four did not exactly scream comfortable. What they were gambling on, was a young side throwing the kitchen sink and running out of projectiles, or coming up short against the 5-4-1 barricade they had taken refuge in. By the time we hit stoppage time, Newcastle must have been confident. Chelsea had only scored one equalizing or winning goal in stoppage time in any competition in the past 577 days, a penalty from Cole Palmer to make it 4-4 against City.

A defiant response to this level of suffocating pressure has often been the definitive making of Chelsea icons in the past. Up stepped a 21-year-old penalty specialist of a side he joined this summer, then the captain, fighting to stay at his boyhood club by delivering yet another standout midfield performance, an under-fire Ukrainian kid who has fewer PL starts than Sterling did at 17 but had dragged the game to penalties, and a marquee player who had graced the Stamford Bridge grass for the first time in his Chelsea career. All four scored picture-perfect penalties.

Petrovic, making only his second start, radiated maturity from the off, making sure he was the one personally handing the ball to his team’s kickers, offering a few words of encouragement to dispel the stress of the long walk to the spot. He guessed right on every kick bar Guimaraes’, before emphatically swatting away Ritchie’s effort.

Relief flooded the Bridge after the whistle, drowning Pochettino in a flood of effusive embraces with his players. Kendry Paez, hailed as South America’s next superstar, watched on from the box, applauding in delight. If the celebrations felt over the top, you’re wearing the wrong glasses – this was every bit a young, wounded, oft lost team punching back against a side that had humiliated them earlier in the season. Last season, Chelsea won two games in a row just once across all competitions all season. With a half season gone, they’ve quadrupled that tally already. It isn’t Chelsea standard yet, but it is closer than it was yesterday. There is a long way to go. There will be games where it’s less painful to turn away than to keep on watching. But there will also be nights like these, which makes all the other ones worth enduring in the long run.