Chelsea recovered from conceding two early goals to Nick Woltemade to draw 2-2 with Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday, with Joao Pedro’s equalizer coming off a rare assist from a goalkeeper.
Robert Sanchez smashed a long clearance up to Pedro, who headed the ball forward and ended up collecting it himself after Fabian Schar slipped. Pedro slotted a finish underneath Newcastle goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to earn Chelsea a point in the 66th minute.
Woltemade put Chelsea 2-0 up by scoring from close range in the fourth minute and then glancing home a cross from Anthony Gordon in the 20th.
For the tall Germany striker, it marked a huge contrast in emotions to last weekend — when he scored an own-goal to consign Newcastle to a derby loss at fierce rival Sunderland.
“I wanted to give a good performance today and I think I did,” Woltemade said. "I just want to say thank you to the fans for still being good with me.”
Reece James launched Chelsea’s fightback by curling a free kick in off the post in the 49th.
Fourth-place Chelsea trimmed its gap to Arsenal to seven points ahead of the leader’s match at Everton later Saturday, but has won only one of its last five games in the league.
Newcastle, one of England's representatives in the Champions League this season, is languishing in midtable after one win in its last four games — and that was against next-to-last Burnley.
There are eight games in total on Saturday, including second-place Manchester City — which is two points behind Arsenal — hosting West Ham and Liverpool visiting Tottenham.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
