Newcastle legend Given blasts ‘really nasty’ Chelsea star after draw at St James’ Park | OneFootball

Former Newcastle United goalkeeper Shay Given insists Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho was lucky not to get sent off against the Magpies on Saturday.

Newcastle raced into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes with Nick Woltemade scoring twice to get a bit of redemption for his own goal in the Tyne-Wear Derby last week.

However, a brilliant Reece James free-kick got one back for Chelsea shortly after half-time, before great work from Joao Pedro saw him score an equaliser on 66 minutes.

Eddie Howe was frustrated after the match with a number of decisions made by Andy Madley as Newcastle seemed to have a good shout for a penalty when Trevoh Chalobah brought Anthony Gordon down in the penalty box.

While Howe was also aggrieved when Garnacho got away with a late tackle on Jacob Ramsey and Given called it “really nasty” with the Chelsea winger lucky to get away without a red card.

Given said on BBC’s Match of the Day: “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 my 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.”

On the penalty appeal, Given added: “The one Eddie Howe was really angry about after the game was the penalty.

“Gordon has got ahead of Chalobah and the defender has made no attempt to play the ball. You could argue it’s shoulder-to-shoulder but he even comes across him with his leg.

“I don’t think that’s a difficult decision; I think that’s a stonewall penalty. You can see and understand why Howe is angry with some of the decisions because these small instances make a big difference.”

Another Newcastle legend, Alan Shearer, thought James’ spectacular free-kick completely changed the game with the Geordies struggling to get to grips with Chelsea after that goal.

Shearer told the Premier League website: “If you ever need evidence of goals changing games, that’s exactly what happened to Chelsea following Reece James’ free-kick.

“It just flipped. Newcastle couldn’t get near that Chelsea team [after James’ goal].

“Chelsea moved it a lot quicker, they had more width, their wingers got into the game and started asking questions, they didn’t do that in the first half.”

Reacting to his free-kick goal, James told TNT Sports after the match: “To execute one when we needed to pull something out of the bag was a great feeling.

“It’s a difficult place to come, many teams come here and the atmosphere gets the better of a lot of teams. It’s important when you can’t win, not to lose.”