Is Newcastle speedster good enough to stop Chelsea’s Hazardous threat?

Newcastle defender Danny Simpson Newcastle United’s fastest player from last weekend’s win over Tottenham Hotspur, Danny Simpson, comes up against Chelsea’s creative force, Eden Hazard, this evening, but can Simmo stop the Belgian in his tracks? Here are a few stats ahead of Chelsea v Newcastle at Stamford Bridge…

• Chelsea got off to a winning start with two early goals sealing a 2-0 win against Wigan last weekend.

• Frank Lampard scored from the spot and Branislav Ivanovic also scored as Eden Hazard impressed on his debut.

• Hazard was one of only two players to be credited with two assists in the opening round of games, the other being Swansea’s Wayne Routledge.

• Despite coming away 2-0 winners, Chelsea should thank goalkeeper Petr Cech who made ten saves against Wigan, the most of any Premier League goalkeeper in the opening weekend.

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• John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic also needed to be on good form, with each contributing 6 clearances, putting them joint second in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for that category after one round of games.

• Full back Ryan Bertrand has been lauded by many as the long term replacement for Ashley Cole for both Chelsea and England, and the youngster covered more ground than any other Chelsea player against Wigan with 5.67 miles.

• Newcastle and Spurs are likely to be among the clubs battling it out for fourth place at the end of the season, and Newcastle took the early bragging rights with a 2-1 win at the weekend.

• Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa continued their outstanding form from the end of last season to net for the Magpies.

• Newcastle outran Spurs by 58.94 miles to 57.14 miles in that game, with Cheik Tiote and Jonas Gutierrez continuing where they left off last season by covering most ground with 5.93 miles and 5.64 miles.

• Full back Danny Simpson surprised many people with his performances last season, and the young defender clocked the fastest top speed of any Newcastle player with 22.5 mph, only marginally slower than Spurs flying winger Gareth Bale who clocked 22.66 mph.