Gutierrez: 'A Magnificent Win'

By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Jonas Gutierrez hailed Newcastle's "magnificent" win at Chelsea as one of the best results of an amazing campaign - before turning his attention towards another crunch game against Manchester City.

Wednesday night's 2-0 success at Stamford Bridge took United four points ahead of the Blues and kept the pressure on Spurs, who held onto fourth place after beating Bolton.

Robert Di Matteo's side were still on a high after overcoming Barcelona last week to reach the Champions League final and thrashed Queens Park Rangers in their previous outing.

But they had no answer to Papiss Cisse's brilliance as the Magpies' number nine hit a glorious brace in another wonderful display from Alan Pardew's side.

"I think it was one of the best results of the season because we had three games to go and it was against a team we're fighting with in the table," Gutierrez told nufc.co.uk.

"It was magnificent and the team played very well. Now we have two games to go and we are in a good position.

"The squad and the staff are working hard to do our best for those games, starting with Sunday. We have to keep going and keep focused because we have two big games.

"Manchester City know what is expected of them; they have to win if they want to be the champions so it will be a massive game."

The win in West London came on the back of a 4-0 defeat at Wigan last Saturday, and Gutierrez was delighted to bounce back in such style.

"We knew what Wigan's style of football was like," he explained. "If you'd seen Wigan in the last one-and-a-half months, you'd have to say they're playing the best football in the league.

"In the first half they were so much better than us. You have to say that because that's how it was. Normally we create chances but the chances we had in that game, we couldn't score.

"It sometimes happens but in the last eight games, we've won seven and it's so difficult to do that in the Premier League. Tonight we won 2-0 and the mistakes we made on Saturday, we put right."

Having Cisse in such form certainly helps; the January signing has now scored 13 goals in 12 games for Newcastle following his arrival from Freiburg and his second Stamford Bridge strike in particular had to be seen to be believed.

But Gutierrez insists that strike partner Demba Ba is playing an equally important role with United's form based largely on a strong team ethic.

"The moment that Papiss is in is unbeliveable," said the Argentina international. "We want all the strikers to score because it's good for their confidence.

"Earlier in the season it was Demba; now Demba is not finding the net but he's doing a great job as well. You saw Demba, he has worked really, really hard and we hope that in the next game he can score."