Chelsea have now dropped nine points at home already this season and the Londoners' inability to carve open defence-minded sides is becoming an increasing problem.
The simple fact is that Newcastle are in a relegation dogfight did not come for a victory. They sat back and absorbed the erratic attacks of the home side and came away with a 0-0 draw.
Shay Given produced a marvellous save on five minutes denying Frank Lampard's excellent downward header from eight yards out. The shot-stopper punched the ball away after Florent Malouda's left-wing cross had found the midfielder who seemed certain to open the scoring.
Malouda produced a piece of magic weaving his way through the Newcastle rearguard before losing his balance and the ball trickled to Given on 17 minutes.
Newcastle's first attempt on the Chelsea goal came from Jonas Gutierrez on 20 minutes but his shot zoomed high and wide of the home goal.
The game was very much attack versus defence as the visitors defended deep to repel the home side's advances.
An excellent ten-man move by Chelsea on 30 minutes saw Lampard pirouette and connect with a smart volley but Given saved well.
A minute later Jose Bosingwa opened up the Newcastle defence with a curling right-wing cross that fell to Ashley Cole at the far post, but the left-back was unable to steer the ball goal-bound.
A Branislav Ivanovic header from a Lampard free-kick on 33 minutes them flew inches wide of Given's crossbar.
A quick counter-attack on 38 minutes almost saw Michael Owen snatch a opener for the visitors but the ball from Gutierrez, from the right was cleared by John Terry before the ex-England striker had a chance to connect.
Joe Cole bundled the ball into the net on 54 minutes but he was judged to be offside after Malouda's shot had been parried into the air.
A Lampard curler, which was just wide a minute later, demonstrated Chelsea's superiority.
Chelsea felt that Given had pulled the ball over the line a minute later when the Irishman held onto a Lampard free-kick but the referee Phil Dowd decided in favour of the goalkeeper.
Luiz Felipe Scolari brought on Salomon Kalou on 60 minutes to pep up Chelsea's attack while Joe Kinnear brought on Shola Ameobi and Charles N'Zogbia.
But with Michael Ballack shooting into the side-netting in the closing moments that was as close as it got for Chelsea as Newcastle came away with a well-deserved point.