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Chelsea took the lead with and excellent goal after 14 minutes. An inch-perfect first-time drive by Boudewijn Zenden on the left wing was met perfectly by Icelandic striker Eidur Gudjohnsen whose powerful, leaping header was low and wide of a despairing dive of Shay Given. The ball hit the base of Given's right post and ricocheted in to the net.
Chelsea, were well worth their lead and added to it after 27 minutes through the mercurial talents of Gianfranco Zola .
Having been up-ended by Gary Speed on the edge of the Newcastle penalty area, up stepped Zola, whose whipped free-kick got the cruelest of deflections off the head of the luckless Speed and the ball arrowed in top the top left-hand corner of the net.
Robson told his side at half time to forget the 2-0 deficit, think of the game as 0-0, and try to get the all-important next goal.
Unfortunately for the ex-England manager, the goal came in killer, comical fashion.
Shay Given wasn't going to kick the ball, but his first touch was so poor he had to give it to Aaron Hughes. Zenden and Zola then pressed Hughes forcing him in to an error.
The ball dropped to Zola who passed the ball into the path of Gudjohnsen who tapped the ball into the empty net. "Even I could have scored that," said Robson.
Robson was scathing at his defence for that goal: "At that point we were back in the game in terms of possession, but that third goal was a killer and in the end we lost miserably, in fact we got a bit of a battering."