Tonali sinks 10-man Chelsea as Newcastle win top five showdown

NEWCASTLE took a huge step towards qualifying for the Champions League as Sandro Tonali inspired a vital 2-0 victory over top five rivals Chelsea yesterday.

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Tonali put Newcastle ahead after just two minutes at St James’ Park before Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson was sent off for an elbow on Sven Bot-man late in the first half.

Bruno Guimaraes struck in stop-page-time to secure the Magpies’ sev-enth win from their last nine league games and lift them into third place in the Premier League.

Eddie Howe’ side, aiming to feature in the Champions League for the sec-ond time in three seasons, are one point above fourth-placed Manchester City and three clear of fifth-placed Chelsea and sixth-placed Aston Villa.

League Cup winners Newcas-tle travel to Arsenal next weekend, before hosting Everton in their last two matches.

“I thought first half we were really good. I was very pleased. The send-ing-off changed the game,” Howe said.

“With the score line as it was, it was a tricky second half for us mentally because we wanted to go and attack. But Chelsea tweaked things to make it difficult for us. We hung in there. We got over the line and that’s the major thing in a game like today.”