NEWCASTLE UNITED dropped out of the Champions League places for the first time since early September after losing 3-0 at home to Chelsea.

A Didier Drogba header seven minutes before half-time and late strikes from Solomon Kalou and Daniel Sturridge secured all three points for the Blues, who had been denied by Tim Krul's excellence in the Magpies goal.

But it could have been so different. Even before Shola Ameobi had hit the crossbar and Chelsea denied Newcastle an equaliser on a few occasions, the visitors were fortunate.

With less than four minutes on the clock referee Mike Dean only handed David Luiz a yellow card when he was clearly the last man when he pulled down Demba Ba.

That infuriated the Newcastle bench, players and fans, but from that point on Chelsea were able to take the lead and, crucially, hold on to it.

With the suspended Jonas Gutierrez's workrate missing, Newcastle struggled to cope with the pace of Sturridge down the right side and lost their grip on fourth spot.

Time and again Sturridge had the better of Ryan Taylor and Krul pulled off numerous top quality saves to keep the Blues at bay.

And when Yohan Cabaye tripped Sturridge in the 14th minute in the area, Krul pulled off his best when he got down low to his left to turn Frank Lampard's penalty on to the post.

Cech had to be alert to tip over a back-heeled volley from Ba over his crossbar, while the African also headed against the post.

But moments later Chelsea did find a way beyond Krul. Juan Mata floated a teasing centre over and Drogba out-jumped James Perch – an early sub for the injured Fabricio Coloccini – to head in the opener.

Newcastle, who had taken off the unspectacular Hatem Ben Arfa and replaced him with Shola Ameobi, had a vibrancy about them, but failed to test Cech as often as they would have liked.

And when Newcastle did find a way through, John Terry was on hand to clear a Sammy Ameobi off the line and then the crossbar denied his brother Shola.

Then once Kalou had found the net, Sturridge also finally found a way past Krul, to wrap things up with two goals in the final two minutes and Steven Taylor had to join Coloccini on the treatment table.