Brilliant Cisse inspires Newcastle to vital victory at the Bridge

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Chelsea 0 Newcastle 2

Papiss Cisse boosted Newcastle’s chances of a top-four finish – and took a hammer to Chelsea’s – with two brilliant goals at Stamford Bridge.

Davide Santon was the provider for Cisse’s opener, cutting in from the left and finding the Senegalese striker, who turned near the edge of the penalty area and blasted an unstoppable shot beyond the helpless Petr Cech.

And Cisse topped that in injury time, collecting the ball out on the left and letting fly with an outrageous, instinctive strike that flew past a stunned Cech and into the net.

The result left Chelsea four points behind the Magpies and Tottenham, who won 4-1 at Bolton.

They came into the match in buoyant mood following their Champions League triumph against Barcelona and a 6-1 demolition of neighbours QPR.

Fernando Torres was the man of the moment because of his recent goalscoring form – but Cisse has been finding the net for fun since joining Newcastle and his brace took his tally to 13 goals in 12 matches.

Chelsea’s response to his first of the night saw them almost equalise when Florent Malouda headed just wide from Torres’ right-wing cross before Branislav Ivanovic – back from suspension – headed over.

But Newcastle remained a threat and were unlucky not to be two-up at the break.

Cech tipped away a shot from Demba Ba, who then fired against the crossbar after Chelsea failed to clear the resulting corner.

Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo made changes to try and breath some life into his team, replacing the ineffective Daniel Sturridge with Juan Mata at the interval and later bringing on Didier Drogba for the equally poor Malouda.

Mata and Drogba were substitutes along with Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole in a bid to keep them fresh for Saturday’s FA Cup final.

Drogba’s introduction gave the home side a much needed physical presence up front, but they continued to struggle to create chances and appealed in vain for a penalty after the Ivorian went down under a challenge from Fabricio Coloccini.

Newcastle were worthy winners and Cisse’s contender for goal of the season sealed their first league victory at the Bridge for 26 years.

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