Newcastle United 0 Chelsea 3

Dec 4 2011 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

THERE are 20 shopping days left until Christmas – let’s hope Mike Ashley is feeling uncharacteristically generous.

Never mind talk of clinging on to crown jewels like Tim Krul, Cheick Tiote and Fabricio Coloccini in the January sales, Newcastle United desperately need to invest to protect the gains made during their awesome Autumn.

Here was the proof - a festive warning that rang loud and true for the watching Toon owner.

Finishing with James Perch barely holding together a battered and bruised back four, a severely depleted United were ultimately undone by a Chelsea side able to keep a £50million striker in reserve.

You had to feel for Alan Pardew and his players.

A three-goal defeat makes it sound like a drubbing, but Newcastle were always in it – and can justifiably claim that Mike Dean’s early mistake cost them the chance to have a serious crack at 10 men for an hour and a half.

In the end, though, it became an exercise in what happens when threadbare resources are stretched to breaking point.

Already missing his “warrior” Tiote, Pardew was then forced into a hasty reshuffle when peerless skipper Coloccini pulled a thigh before the half-hour mark.

Steven Taylor’s late Achilles injury made no material difference to the result – but if it is as serious as Pardew fears, it might have a more profound effect in the weeks to come.

And that is a problem for a boss who now has a compelling case for more cash when the transfer window swings open in just over three weeks’ time.

Pardew was bristling afterwards, and with justification.