Chelsea 2 Newcastle United 0

OF all the criticisms levelled at Alan Pardew during his time as Newcastle boss, the one that inflicted most damage on his team was his failure to get the best out of the more creative talents at his disposal.

Hatem Ben Arfa is the most obvious example of a player whose attacking talents went to waste, but it can also be argued that Sylvain Marveaux was cast off before he had a chance to fully exhibit his potential while Moussa Sissoko was rarely utilised in his best position as a central attacking midfielder.

Then, of course, there was Remy Cabella, signed from Montpellier in the summer after a protracted courtship that lasted the best part of a year, but handed just three starts in Pardew’s last 13 Premier League matches as manager.

Had Pardew remained at St James’, Cabella would almost certainly have become another Ben Arfa, a player whose abundant talents were rendered redundant because of a perceived lack of application and defensive capabilities.

Yet for all that Cabella has produced some disappointing displays in a Newcastle shirt, he has never come across as another Ben Arfa. Off the field, the 24-year-old is described as a model professional, something that could never have been said of his compatriot, and on the pitch, his struggles can surely be attributed to the difficulties of adapting to the Premier League rather than an unwillingness to embrace the requirements of a team.

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Given the dearth of creative options within the Newcastle squad, it always seemed like folly to write him off so readily, and if Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Chelsea is to mark the end of the transition to a new era under Remi Garde, perhaps in time it will also come to be recognised as the start of a new beginning for Cabella.

Garde, with his reputation for nurturing slick, free-flowing football, would surely have appreciated his fellow Frenchman’s performance at Stamford Bridge, and even if he was to achieve little else in his first few months as Newcastle’s head coach, a successful harnessing of Cabella’s talents would be a decent enough start.

Whether it was the mazy dribble that resulted in a shot that deflected narrowly over the crossbar off John Terry or the lightning burst of pace that took him beyond the former England skipper and led to a strike that was brilliantly saved by Petr Cech, Cabella’s performance repeatedly caught the eye. He did well in a second-half cameo at Burnley last month, but this was by far and away his best display in a Newcastle shirt.

John Carver deserves some of the credit for that, with the caretaker boss having taken Cabella to task in front of the rest of the Newcastle squad last week before opting to retain him in the starting line-up after he displayed flashes of inspiration in the FA Cup defeat at Leicester City.

“We know what ability Remy has when he is in possession of the ball, but he has been a little bit lax in the other side of the game,” said Carver. “The one thing we demand and our supporters demand is that the players work hard along with the creativity, which he has in abundance.

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“He just has to start adding that end product to what he does and he would have scored against Chelsea had Petr Cech not made a fantastic save. That’s progress for me because at least he produced something in the end.  So he has to continue doing that and I said that in front of all the guys.

“Why did I do that? It’s the way I am. I’m quite straight and honest. I think it’s important that I shared that with everybody so then everyone knows where they stand. They know that if they are not prepared to work, which is the first ingredient, they won’t be in the team.

“His performance showed that he took it in. He got our fans on the edge of their seats. I was on the edge of my seat, and we hadn’t seen that from him before Saturday.”

As Carver rightly highlighted, the only disappointing element to Cabella’s first-half performance was that it failed to produce a goal. Indeed, with Sissoko and Ayoze Perez also performing excellently before the interval, Newcastle could arguably have been a couple of goals to the good before they conceded a 43rd-minute opener to Oscar.

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Sissoko rattled the angle of post and crossbar after a surging run took him beyond Terry and into the area, but despite dominating Chelsea to the extent that Jose Mourinho repeatedly found himself berating his own players, Newcastle were unable to make a breakthrough.

“I think we deserved a goal,” said Krul. “I thought we really took the game to them and had some great chances. I thought Cabella was outstanding, but unfortunately Cech made some great saves. That was the difference. If we had been 1-0 up at half-time, we would have had a massive chance to walk away with all three points.”

Instead, Newcastle found themselves 1-0 down as they switched off to allow Willian to deliver a short corner to Branislav Ivanovic, who in turn crossed for Oscar to score at the back post.

“I think we could have defended the goals a lot better, especially the first one,” admitted Jack Colback. “They played the ball quickly, and unfortunately Colo (Fabricio Coloccini) was out of position because he’d gone across to close the ball down. Maybe we should have been a bit more switched on because they’ve got the players to see an opportunity like that and make it count.”

Chelsea’s second goal was a thing of beauty, with Eden Hazard chipping the ball into the area, Oscar laying it off with a fantastic back-heel, and Costa driving across the face of the area before drilling a low strike past Krul.