the Chelsea News
·22 December 2025
“If you watch it slowly” – Shay Given not happy with one Chelsea player vs Newcastle

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Yahoo sportsthe Chelsea News
·22 December 2025

Former Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given was not happy with one Chelsea player during the game against his former side.
Given, who is now retired of course, was doing punditry work on the game for Match of the Day, reviewing it all.
It was an entertaining game for the neutrals of course, with four goals scored. But for Chelsea fans, it will be seen as just another frustrating game to watch and seeing something that has just become far too familiar for them under Enzo Maresca – a very bad 45 minutes of the game, but managing to turn things around in the other half.
Gary Neville has actually got it spot on with his analysis on his Podcast over the weekend, targeting Chelsea’s lack of an experienced spine and the need to add more ‘beasts’ into the squad. I don’t often agree with Gary, but this time he is bang on.
Chelsea were just lucky and relieved that forward Joao Pedro did very well to get onto a long pass from Robert Sanchez to then slot home to grab Chelsea’s equaliser in the game.

Alejandro Garnacho rues a missed chance. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
As picked up by London World, Given said:
“I understand Eddie Howe’s frustrations because some of the decisions I actually disagreed with myself. There was a few decisions the referee had to make and they weren’t easy, don’t get me wrong.
“The first one came in the first half and I thought it was a really nasty challenge from Alejandro Garnacho. If you watch it slowly, he doesn’t make any attempt to play the ball, he goes over the top and clearly catches him really high up. VAR didn’t intervene but I think that’s a really dangerous tackle from Garnacho and one he gets away with.”









































