Chelsea failed to regain the EPL’s top spot when more defensive calamity led to two dropped points at St James’s Park.

There were only six minutes on the clock when Blues centre-back Alex passed the ball back towards keeper Petr Cech.

But the ball rolled past Cech, allowing Andy Carroll to nip in and roll the ball into the unguarded net.

Chelsea could have fallen behind on two minutes when Cech parried Steven Taylor’s header into the path of Shola Ameobi. But the striker shot into the side-netting.

Chelsea dominated possession for the rest of the game. Salomon Kalou’s 26^th-minute header from Florent Malouda’s corner was cleared off the line by Taylor.

And just before half-time, the same Chelsea players combined to set up Kalou, whose right-foot shot was deflected into the net past Newcastle keeper Tim Krull’s left-hand.

Krull made second-half saves from Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and Kalou – the latter somehow firing the rebound wide of an open goal from four yards.

Nicolas Anelka and Daniel Sturridge were also off-target. But Newcastle’s Wayne Routledge came close on 62 minutes when Ashley Cole headed his half-volley from 15 yards off the line after Cech had only half-cleared a cross.