Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino said he was “angry and disappointed” with the performance of his players as they capitulated against an under-strength Newcastle side on Saturday afternoon.

It was a huge setback for the Blues after some promising recent displays against Tottenham and Manchester City, and the humbling defeat at St James’ Park leaves plenty of questions about where this team will go from here.

Pochettino publicly admonished his players, calling them “soft” and not up for the challenge, and it will be interesting to see how the squad react to his criticisms.

Our player ratings for Newcastle v Chelsea

Robert Sanchez – 4/10 – not at fault for any of the goals but he was shaky when Chelsea had to defend corners.

Reece James – 2/10 – the fullback lost his head. Getting sent off is not what you expect from the captain. Kicking the ball away lacked maturity and he should have known better than to pull down Gordon when he was on a yellow.

Thiago Silva – 3/10 – his catastrophic mistake led to Newcastle’s third goal. It killed the game.

Benoit Badiashile – 2/10 – the Frenchman had a nightmare on his return to the starting eleven, going AWOL for Isak’s opening goal and failing to mark Lascelles for the second.

Marc Cucurella – 4/10 – kept Isak onside for the first goal, although Badiashile was the main culprit. Was booked late on and will now miss the Brighton game.

Enzo Fernandez – 5/10 – tested Nick Pope with a shot, and made some neat passes but he couldn’t provide any control in midfield.

Lesley Ugochukwu – 5/10 – it was tough to throw in the Frenchman for such a difficult away fixture and his lack of match fitness proved pivotal as he wasn’t able to close down his opponents fast enough.

Conor Gallagher – 5/10 – probably the midfielder’s worst game of the season. Missed two decent chances and got himself a booking before being substituted.

Cole Palmer – 4/10 – found it hard to get into the match, and despite trying to link up play between midfield and attack, he wasn’t on the ball enough.

Nicolas Jackson – 2/10 – made no impact on the game whatsoever and it will raise further questions about whether the club should sign a new no.9.

Raheem Sterling – 7/10 – Chelsea‘s best player, and his superb freekick got his team back into the match at 1-1.

Substitutes

Moises Caicedo – 5/10 – unable to make any sort of impact after coming on with 20 minutes to go.

Mykhailo Mudryk – 5/10 – tried his best by making some forward runs but the Ukrainian couldn’t affect the outcome of the game.

Armando Broja – 5/10 – isolated up front and couldn’t get into the match.

Noni Madueke – N/A

Levi Colwill – N/A