Newcastle United were forced into a tactical reshuffle and late changes to the team sheet at the squad's London hotel on Sunday morning. Both Joe Willock and Jonjo Shelvey were hit by illness on the morning of the game and withdrawn from proceedings at Stamford Bridge.
Whether the duo recover in time for Thursday's trip to Everton remains to be seen but Joelinton, who has been missing with a groin injury, should be back at Goodison Park. Joelinton travelled with Newcastle to both Southampton and Chelsea but wasn't risked.
Howe explained after the 1-0 defeat: "Joe was close this game, but didn’t quite make it. He started to train us with on Saturday, but couldn’t complete the session, and then we lost Jonjo and Joe Willock very late on Saturday night due to illness, so that meant a complete tactical reshuffle Sunday morning."
The situation at least gave Howe an opportunity to look at Sean Longstaff from the start and the Geordie battled well against a stellar line-up in midfield as the Academy product went in against Mason Mount, N'Golo Kante and Jorginho no less.
Howe reflected: "We only had two central midfielders, Bruno Guimaraes and Sean Longstaff, to pick from through the whole squad. It obviously meant a very late reshuffle, but you wouldn’t know if from the performance, and that’s the biggest credit I can give the players. They really committed to what we asked them to do, and, tactically, we were very good."
