Mikel moves on from Chelsea defeat

Midfielder Mikel admitted the Blues would almost certainly have to win the Champions League final on May 19 if they are to qualify for next season's competition. The result left Roberto Di Matteo's men four points adrift of the top four with just two games remaining and put a serious dent in the caretaker manager's hopes of being appointed full-time.

Acknowledging beating Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena was Chelsea's only realistic hope of avoiding failure to reach the Champions League for the first time since Roman Abramovich bought the club, Mikel said: "Now we have to concentrate. Everyone is going to say that the only chance we have now is to win the Champions League final."

He added: "It is what everyone wants, it is what the fans want and it is what we want. But we have to make sure now that we win on Saturday in the cup final and make sure that we don't let the cup final go past us."

Chelsea picked the wrong time to produce arguably their poorest performance since Di Matteo took charge, with Newcastle thoroughly deserving their first league win at Stamford Bridge since 1986.

The Magpies gave the Blues a dose of their own medicine, striking with ruthless efficiency thanks to one of the best braces you could ever hope to see from Papiss Cisse.

Mikel said: "It was just one of those days.

"We played Barcelona the other day. They created God knows how many chances and they couldn't score, but we scored. This is football.

"We have to forget about it, go back to training and go back to what we have been doing up until now and just make sure we put it right on Saturday."

Source: PA

Source: PA