Some Newcastle United fans feel Martin Dubravka should have done more to prevent Marcos Alonso from scoring the winning goal as Chelsea beat Steve Bruce’s Magpies 1-0.
Bruce’s Toon kicked off in West London a point above the Premier League relegation places after Everton pulled themselves up the table with a 2-0 win over West Ham United in the early game, which saw Southampton slip inside the bottom three ahead of their trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Saints left Molineux with a share of the spoils after Wolves’ Raul Jimenez equalised from the spot, meaning Newcastle needed at least a draw from Stamford Bridge to end matchday nine outside the drop zone.
A 73rd-minute strike by Marcos Alonso ensured that would not be the case, as the Spanish left-back unleashed an angled effort that Dubravka could not keep out.
Some Toon supporters feel the 22-cap Slovakia ‘keeper should have done more to deny the former Sunderland man, though, as the 30-year-old managed to get a hand to the ball before it crossed the line.
Dubravka had already made four saves to deny Chelsea prior to Alonso’s goal, and pulled off another two after the strike to keep the score at 1-0, per WhoScored data.
The Toon’s undisputed number one, who has played the full 90 minutes in each Premier League game since his debut (TransferMarkt), also collected the ball twice and parried danger three times at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea attempted a total of 16 shots.
Newcastle’s shot-stopper also recorded 37 touches on Saturday and played 25 passes, although he only found a teammate with 13 of those for a 52% success rate – no player that started for either side completed fewer.
But it was Dubravka failing to deny Alonso that some United fans took as their key take from his display in West London.
Here are some of the messages shared…
Dubravka should of done much better !!!
— Mick (@Looney_Toon1892) October 19, 2019
Dubravka has got to do better with the goal btw.. don’t care what anyone says
— ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Clem H. Fandango (@youngin_uk) October 19, 2019
Dubravka has got to save that… He’s made a couple of good saves this afternoon but yet again at fault for a goal #NUFC
— Dan (@DZ1892) October 19, 2019
For how good of a shot stopper dubravka is, he really needs to be saving that. Far too often he concedes goals that shouldn’t be going in. #NUFC
— Nathan₯ (@Draaaapes) October 19, 2019
Dubravka needs to stop that!!! #CHENLE #NUFC
— Paddy Coulthard (@CoulthardPaddy) October 19, 2019
Bit frustrating really, thought we played well first half but got too defensive and invited them on second but Joe was fouled in the build up for their goal and I think Dubravka should of saved it
— Smithyy (@SmithyNUFC1) October 19, 2019
Good performance from the lads. Shame that after his earlier heroics Dubravka couldn’t do better with Alonso’s tame shot. Worried that ASM will ultimately be another Almiron – need more end product from the front 3 but Joelinton was feeding off scraps again #NUFC #CHENEW
— Caspar de Wesselow (@cdewesselow) October 19, 2019
