Beren

Just when Miggy has exhausted all the goodwill he's built up through his industry, pressing and effort - he'll score a peach of a goal. So expecting a second half goal from him now.

Almiron's one foot

Weight on the other foot I think.

That's sharn from Isak.

Lewis Miley is good but he lacks a bit of literal confidence and empowerment to make a final ball or shot. He tends to give someone else that responsibility when he's primed to make that incisive move. Hope someone tells him to take more chances in advanced areas.

Really peeved with Almiron for not taking the ball to the corner flag in the 90th minute too. Win a few BS corners and it's done. So daft shooting from that angle. Some fundamental misunderstandings around strategy. You're playing against the clock. You're playing against your own finite reserves. The more they are in your box the more scope there is for fuckery.

I'm not talking about the result. I'm talking about protecting the team and the season. It's only December, we're down to the bare bones, there's still five plus months of football to play. We were at least equal to Chelsea on the ball, but just went in vertical lines in possession for 70 minutes. Eddie Howe's "work 'em til they drop" mentality is working - they are dropping, and he isn't learning. I hope he re-evaluates his methods and approach in this respect over the summer. You can't keep playing this way when you don't have the tools, it becomes a vicious cycle of injuries and poor form.

Really, really poor from Howe (said it when we were winning also). So disappointing. Going into a game where you're knackered, they're not, the aim has to be to bring them down to your energy level - not increase the disparity by chasing shadows with eleven barely fit players. Absolute mad tactics.

Shay is a class guy but he was pretty bad with pens IIRC.

Gotta change some time.

Almiron shooting instead of taking it to the corner flag. So insanely idiotic. Learnt very little from the CL apparently.

1 up. Good result at the half, but I think Howe is doing a poor job here.

Incredible stamina from Bruno.

Almiron you one-footed daftie!

Gordon just needs a word in the ear to take the easy option this game. Don't try and do it all.

Literally no need to play this way. I don't understand it.

Don't mind Chelsea having a spell of possession. It's mostly harmless. The unrelenting insistence to repeatedly go back-to-front immediately when in possession is a recipe for disaster though. Just knackers the squad.

Fantastic shout from Shay Given that the outside of the door delivery to BDB was Nobby Solano-esque.

Tbh at the end of the day, this does feel like very, very, very bitter medicine we just have to swallow to make us stronger. Realistically, we would have played more games in Europe in either the CL or Europa - but probably not had the squad depth or, quite frankly, first team truthlessness to progress much further. We have a much better chance of winning a domestic cup this year. The long term vision of the club is to compete in the CL regularly. With the stacked deck of revenue distribution, even progressing a few rounds isn't going to massively improve this year's revenue - the best thing to do is to requalify for Europe next year, and this outcome is probably most beneficial to that ambition. If we want to make some more noise next year, Newcastle needs to qualify for Europe and attract better players. Howe also will learn from this. The worst thing is this run probably weakens England's case for a fifth CL spot.

Man City got knocked out at the group stages in their first season in the CL too.

Which centre forward can we break the bank for?

Right. Going incommunicado with football media for a while

I do think tiredness contributed significantly to the second half. The whole team switching off waiting for an offside flag is a huge mental error though. It's easier to appeal for a flag than keep defending and it was costly. That Milan side was so mediocre. Not thaaaat gutted (the team needs to focus on the league), but I think the players will be.

Good effort from the team. Naive in many ways, but it was a free hit. Just have to use it as a learning experience and move on. They will rightly reflect on how they could have done better. Quite surprised at how open they left themselves. Not sure if there was a directive to go for Champions League or nothing, because it looked that way. A lot of kamikaze defending, which has been a feature of Newcastle defending for a while. Giroud had some fantastic centre forward play. Cracking for his age. The squad needs to strengthen. Hopefully in January. Would love a centre forward who can take on a defender and win.

Ah that's so bad. Switched off waiting for the flag completely.