Garth Crooks accuses Newcastle’s Chancel Mbemba of looking terrified before Alvaro Morata’s header

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Newcastle United defender Chancel Mbemba came in for plenty of criticism during their Premier League defeat at the weekend.

Garth Crooks has told BBC Sport that he thought that Chancel Mbemba looked terrified of Victor Moses’ cross during Chelsea’s Premier League clash with Newcastle at the weekend, and accused the Magpies defender of diving out of the way of the ball before Alvaro Morata made the score 2-1.

With Rafa Benitez’s men enduring a pretty torrid run of form currently – their midweek draw against West Brom was the only point that they had secured in their previous five games – the Spaniard would have known that his side would need to be almost perfect if they wanted to get back to winning ways at Stamford Bridge.

It appeared that they may have a chance to do exactly that with Dwight Gayle breaking the deadlock and giving the visitors a 12th minute lead against the Blues.

But by half-time, the game had been turned on its head, with Chelsea scoring twice. The second goal came from a cross from Moses, who found Morata, who had a simple task to outmuscle Mbemba, with the DR Congo international seemingly more determined to try and win the free-kick rather than try and stop the Spaniard heading home.

But with little contact actually made, Mbemba’s fall looked somewhat strange, and would have surely frustrated the Newcastle supporters. And Crooks also felt that the defender should have done a lot better.

“Against Newcastle, it was patently obvious what Moses could do when he flashed a bullet-like cross towards Chancel Mbemba,” he told BBC Sport.

“The Newcastle defender appeared terrified by the quality of the cross, diving out of the way and allowing Alvaro Morata to score Chelsea’s second in the 3-1 win.”

Benitez will surely be extremely angry with the 23-year-old as it suggests to opponents that they have a good chance of winning duels if the ball is played into the box as Mbemba seemed to decide to try and win the free-kick rather than attempt to win the ball. And with Morata not committing a foul, other forwards may feel that they may not need to do a lot to get the better of Mbemba.