Two years ago, Newcastle United beat Chelsea 1-0 at St James' Park and the current richest club in the world face the Champions League Champions on Saturday as the newly-moneyed Magpies face 21st century nouveau riche Chelsea with 19 Premier League places and 18 points separating the two sides:

Interim manager Graeme Jones leads the Geordie club he supported as a boy out at the famous ground as The Magpies embark on a journey to the upper echelons of the football world that Chelsea themselves went on in the late 1990s that was accelerated by the arrival of Roman Abramovich's billions in 2003 followed by a trophy-laden era winning the Premier League five times, the Champions League twice & 8 domestic cups.

Its almost hard to believe that back in the early 1980s, Chelsea and Newcastle were battling it out for promotion to the top flight of English football at St James' Park and drew 1-1 in a game featuring the likes of Kevin Keegan, Terry McDermott, Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley for The Magpies and David Speedie for The Pensioners.

That season Chelsea pipped Newcastle to the Second Division title yet Blues fans pundits like Talksport's Jason Cundy, who was quick to wind up Newcastle fans when the takeover went through about the club's 'lack of history', would do well to research the respective history of Chelsea & Newcastle before their ultra-wealthy owners arrived.

Newcastle are the last sleeping giant in English football with rapid reawakening potential with a 50,000+ stadium & fanbase as the club did in the 1990s with significant investment by Sir John Hall and the millions spent by Kevin Keegan, who broke the world transfer record in 1996 to bring Alan Shearer home to Geordieland for £15M.

Cundy should learn never to write Geordies off and heed the lesson of the Blackburn fans who wondered whether their new striker Alan Shearer could fill the boots of ex-Chelsea David Speedie when he signed for Rovers in 1993 for £3.3M before plundering 112 goals in 138 games and delivering the Premier League title.

Back to 2021 & before Newcastle fans can get carried away at the exciting prospect of buying the world's best players starting potentially in January, The Magpies have to ensure they stay in The Premier League this season then kick on after that and ex-Chelsea man Eden Hazard is the latest star to be linked with a move to St James' Park.

Both of last season's matches played behind closed doors due to Covid-19 ended in 2-0 victories for Chelsea, one at St James' Park under Frank Lampard's management and the other at Stamford Bridge under his mid-season replacement Thomas Tuchel yet the season before, Steve's Bruce's men triumphed 1-0 thanks to Isaac Hayden's late header in what was the last goal and win seen by Newcastle fans before the world was dramatically shut down by the global pandemic in March 2020 for 18 months.

Since that day and the last time the sides met, Chelsea have become Champions League Champions, beating Man City 1-0 with a goal by German front man Kai Havertz and were many pundits and journalists tip for the Premier League title this year under Thomas Tuchel's tutelage but despite last week's 7-0 thrashing of Norwich at Stamford Bridge , they are not unbeatable, only just beat Brentford 1-0 a fortnight ago and have lost to another side who play in black and white - Juventus in the Champions League.

Newcastle Head Coach Graeme Jones ripped up The Magpies' training schedule and had Newcastle players training for five days this week in the hope of turning the season around after declaring a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace last week did "stop the rot" after consecutive defeats to Wolves and Spurs although the bar will have to be significantly raised against Chelsea if a positive result is to be the outcome yet with 50,000 Geordies roaring their side in a post-takeover fever pitch sell-out, anything is possible.

Jones took the Friday press conference again and revealed he has a full complement of Newcastle's squad to pick from barring Geordies Paul Dummett and Elliot Andersen:

Jones said he was happy with the point at Crystal Palace last week and was attempting to lay solid and united foundations for a new manager to walk into whenever that may be with Newcastle's new owners still hoping to speak to a number of candidates thought to include Roberto Martinez, Lucien Favre and Steven Gerrard with Jones prepared to manage a third game at Brighton if duty calls.

Thomas Tuchel is hoping to continue Chelsea's unbeaten Premier League start at the summit of the top flight with 2020/21 Champions Liverpool breathing down their necks gaining real momentum with just a point less & Man City just two points behind.

The German manager revealed that four of Chelsea's key players - Roman Lukaku, Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic and Mateo Kovacic are out of the match and spoke extensively about the Newcastle game admitting it was a difficult game to call:

“Let’s see. I cannot predict it. Things have changed for them, maybe in the dressing room and in the club and belief in the city and in the belief of the supporters with what’s coming. Maybe that affects the atmosphere in the stadium for them and for us. Listen, we experience right now the huge value to play against us. We come off these matches where we played as so-called favourites and if you look again at the table, it is the same constellation. I liked a lot how we approached these matches with the kind of intensity and effort we put into these matches. It was a nice approach and the effort we absolutely want from our team. To prove the point during the 90 minutes, we know very well that you can turn things around and close gaps in 90 minutes. That’s football, that is the game. Newcastle will try their best performance, the spectators will try to help. We are responsible for us, for our limits, to set new standards and meet our standards in what we demand. We expect a tough game and this cannot be a surprise because we play in the Premier League and coming to a very emotional and big club. That’s what we are looking for, we need to be on our best level tomorrow to catch the three points. We are up for the three points.”

Graeme Jones said he'd spoken to his players about playing the game not the occasion but in front of a re-energised St James' Park full of 50,000 Geordies, using the crowd's 12th man effect may be to Newcastle's advantage like it was in the January 2019 win:

Prediction - Newcastle 2 Chelsea 1

Potential Line-Ups: