Chelsea 2 - 0 Newcastle

Alan Pardew's Newcastle United side beat former Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas' new team Tottenham 2-1 last weekend to get their season off to a winning start.

They also drew 1-1 with Greek side Atromitos on Thursday and had to return from Athens to prepare for the trip to Stamford Bridge two days later.

Chelsea will look for victory in the evening kick-off looking to make it a perfect three wins on the bounce in this season's Premier League.

Roberto Di Matteo's early league leaders followed up their 2-0 away win at Wigan on Sunday with a pulsating 4-2 home victory over new boys Reading on Wednesday.

The Blues had to come from behind to beat Brian McDermott's side and Di Matteo will be looking for his team to tighten up at the back, especially against top strikers Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba.

Cisse notched a brace - including his curling wonder-goal - as the Magpies downed the Blues 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in May last season.

And Ba - who is hoping to be fit from a sore shin - showed his own goalscoring prowess with the opener as Alan

Opta Facts

• Newcastle ended a run of 18 league games without a win at Stamford Bridge when they beat the Blues 2-0 in May 2012.
• There has been a 90th minute goal in each of the last three Premier League games between Chelsea and Newcastle.
• Eden Hazard has won more penalties in the top five European Leagues (France, England, Spain, Italy & Germany) than any other player since the start of last season (8).

Newcastle United succumbed to their first defeat of the season as they lost 2-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Eden Hazard continued his impressive start to life in the Premier League as he and Fernando Torres inspired Chelsea to a 2-0 victory over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge.

Roberto Di Matteo's men have now won all three of their opening games to take an early lead in the table, while for the Magpies it was their first defeat after beating Tottenham last weekend.

Both of Chelsea's goals came in the first half, with Torres winning a penalty for the hosts when Vurnon Anita, on his full Newcastle debut, lashed out at the striker in the box.

Hazard made no mistake with the conversion, making a short run-up before blasting his effort past Tim Krul, who went the right way but could not stretch to keep it out.

The Chelsea duo paired up again for the second, producing some wonderful build-up before Hazard flicked on Torres, allowing him to toe-poke home the Londoners' second.

Quality

Chelsea were without injured skipper John Terry and left vice-captain Frank Lampard on the bench, but still had enough quality and experience to dominate against a good Magpies side.

The opening 15 minutes were uneventful, with John Obi Mikel firing high and wide and Hazard shooting straight at Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul.

But the home side created the first real chance three minutes later.

Torres controlled a cross-field pass from Raul Meireles before rolling a ball just inside the box to Ryan Bertrand, whose effort was not strong enough to test Krul.

The European champions were ahead soon after, though, when Vurnon Anita - making his first Premier League start for Newcastle - brought down Torres just inside the area.

With regular penalty-taker Lampard on the bench, Hazard - who earned spot-kicks for his side in each of their first two games this season - stepped up and directed a low penalty past Krul.

Branislav Ivanovic nearly doubled Chelsea's lead just after the half-hour mark when he out-jumped Davide Santon to meet Ashley Cole's deep cross but his header was too close to Krul, who managed to keep the Serbia captain's effort out.

Hazard could have grabbed his second of the game five minutes later but he blazed over from the edge of the area as the hosts started to dominate possession.

Torres was then showed a yellow card by referee Phil Dowd for diving after knocking the ball around Fabricio Coloccini with the whole of the Chelsea bench up in arms as it appeared the Newcastle captain caught Torres with his trailing leg.

The visitors went close to equalising a minute before half-time when full-back Danny Simpson challenged David Luiz as he tried to carry the ball out of the box.

The loose ball broke for Papiss Cisse, but his snap-shot - although hit with venom - was straight at Petr Cech, who held the ball well.

There was still time before the interval for Chelsea to double their lead as the impressive Hazard back-heeled the ball perfectly into the path of Torres, who finished coolly into the top corner.

Newcastle came out in the second half looking for an early goal to get themselves back into the game.

First Hatem Ben Arfa wriggled free before shooting wide before Jonas Gutierrez followed suit moments later.

Demba Ba then forced Cech into a smart save with his legs after breaking free inside the Chelsea penalty area.

With the visitors starting to get a foothold in the game, Roberto Di Matteo introduced Ramires off the bench in place of Juan Mata to add more guile to the Chelsea midfield.

But it was Newcastle substitute Ryan Taylor who almost orchestrated the third goal of the game.

His deep free-kick was met by the head of Cisse but the Senegal striker could not keep his effort down and it comfortably cleared Cech's crossbar.

With Newcastle pushing forward Chelsea were able to launch several counter-attacks and Bertrand almost scored a third with 10 minutes to go but his drilled effort was deflected past Krul's far post for a corner.

Pace

Magpies boss Alan Pardew introduced Sylvain Marveaux for the final 15 minutes and his injection of pace added to Newcastle's potency in attack.

His 84th-minute cross found its way to Ba who, after mis-kicking his first effort, forced a low save out of Cech from eight yards.

With 90 minutes on the clock Luiz required treatment following a clash of heads with Ba as the two contested another Marveaux cross.

Despite requiring a bandage after suffering a nasty cut, the Brazilian defender was untroubled for the five minutes of additional time as Chelsea saw out the remainder of the game without incident.