Newcastle 2-0 Chelsea

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At a packed St James' Park, Newcastle exacted a double dose of revenge against a Chelsea side who had beaten them in the league at the weekend, and also knocked them out in the quarter finals of this competition last season at Stamford Bridge.

The fact that Chelsea made 11 changes from the weekend (to Newcastle's 5) and dominated the stats means very little in the context of this win, because make no mistake, there was a lot riding on this.

A season that had already started to drift, just about everybody out of form, increasing pressure on the manager due to his cut-and-paste substitutions and seeming unwillingness or inability to change the game plan.

But just in time, a good performance finally aligned with a good result, with frequent chants of "Eddie Howe's Black and White Army" ringing out around the ground, hopefully leaving the boss in no doubt that we desperately want him to succeed here.

Newcastle, with Gordon on the right and Joelinton on the left, pressed hard and high from the off, leaving space in behind as a result, and the game was open and entertaining with early chances for both sides.

The biggest of these was Joelinton hitting the post from 8 yards out - a real sitter, and a reminder that, for all his importance to the team now, signing him for £40m as a striker is still one of the most incomprehensible decisions Mike Ashley ever made.

Tin foil hat time, I'm convinced there's more to that deal than we'll ever know, especially given Ashley's insistence that he would spend his own money to buy him.

Digression over, but continuing with Joelinton, as he and Tonali combined to harry the ball away from Chelsea on the edge of their own area, Tonali slipping a neat ball in for Isak to slot home first time.

Following a real rough patch of form, two goals in two games will hopefully kick start Isak's season.

Just three minutes later, Newcastle doubled their advantage, kicking on from a position of strength in a way we just haven't done at all this season.

And it was Isak, played in quickly down the left by Lewis Hall from a free kick, who cut back to swing a cross in.

It was nodded just about goalwards by the lively Joe Willock (his best game this season) but may have been heading towards the post, before Axel Disasi went all Titus Bramble and poked it into his own net.

Newcastle dominated the rest of the half, and Chelsea insisted on playing out from the back in a way that almost beggared belief, especially given how badly they were doing it.

So many times Newcastle were inches away from capitalising.

The second half was played mainly in the Newcastle half, with Chelsea guilty of missing some real chances, but a defence comprising Krafth, Schar, Kelly and Hall held out, with the odd spectacular block and tackle from Kelly (who had looked shaky in the first half) and Schar (who sadly I think has started looking his age this season).

A fairly strong bench allowed a switch to a back five to see the game out without too much drama, with a good performance off the bench for Bruno and the long awaited return of Lewis "Beautiful" Miley (ask George Caulkin).

A home draw against Brentford for a place in the semi final is about as much as we could have hoped for (I'm mildly surprised we didn't draw City away, despite them being knocked out by Spurs).

There are still plenty of big hitters left in the tournament, but if we could get past Brentford, you'd have my official permission to start dreaming.