Chelsea at home is one of those matches that doesn’t induce the same amount of trepidation into the hearts of Sunderland fans as it really should. Every time Chelsea comes up to visit we seem to give them a canny close game. I mean Even when we were really, really crap they only won 2 – 1. This was evident in the opposite numbers’ manager (whoever it was at the time) reeling off spiel such as: “I know that Sunderland hasn’t won in 75 games, but their playing for pride and that makes them dangerous.” This is a very simple tactic in order to save his own arse in case the impossible happened and he lost against a team who couldn’t even beat Brentford in the League Cup; thus evidence that the game against Chelsea is always a tight affair even if we invariably lost it.
The mood within the car and the following pub was also quite singular: we fancy them tonight. They looked more of a rough diamond than a sparkling one against the football bastion that is Hull City and Ancelotti is still finding his feet in a new and tougher division as the players are in a new system. A few pints and a burger later, we finally experienced the hi-tech turnstiles that everyone was buzzing about (too easy that one wasn’t it?). It just seemed to make the queue longer to me but never mind. I’ve heard that R2-D2 style robots are going to be employed behind all the burger stalls next so watch this space.
As far as the game goes, the first half was what we all wanted to see really. We took it to them from the off, Cattermole and Cana getting stuck in as is their want. The young lad Henderson didn’t look out of place at all and covered just about every blade of grass that was at his disposal. Jones looked a lot like his old self as he consistently won headers which he seemed to forget was one of his jobs last season. Bent was looking sharp as ever and ran at the Chelsea defence as much as he could. We had a couple of small chances and then the goal came early on thanks to Jones harrying Terry and Carvalho, smacking the ball of one of them so it slid into the path of bent who slid the ball past Cech with a cool finish. This was the last moment of respite as we were then shown how keeping possession is done for the remainder of the half as we were absolutely battered into our own half continuously, with Cattermole keeping us ahead by clearing a Ballack volley off the line. Bar that there was Chelsea shots fizzing all over the place, bar on target.
I must also point out how much of a shit Ashley Cole made of himself as Henderson legitimately tackled the ball from Cole and in the process took Cole with it, Cole proceeded to make a complete meal of it, seem to get both his legs snapped by the reaction and glare at the ref who gave it as a foul. C**t.
The second half, well there’s not much I can really write as far as what Sunderland did due to Chelsea having the ball for essentially the entire half. Ballack scored from a corner which was quite disappointing if I’m being very critical, then McCartney gave away the most stonewall penalty you will see all year and Chelsea were in the lead. They put on a master class of the game, passed the ball about 1,024 times before giving it to Deco who curled it in off the post. I think that was the best team goal I’ve laid eyes on. The ref then rejected Sunderland’s plea of next goal wins, and the game finished 3 – 1.
Man of the Match: would have to be Ferdinand for me, had a good game when he had a hell of a lot to do.
Keep the Faith
Sorry for the lateness
Jonothan Scollen
