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Chelsea 2 Sunderland 0: Geremi goal deflates bold SunderlandBrian Glanville at Stamford Bridge CHELSEA, one way or another, continue to win their matches, even though they made heavy weather of the first half against modest Sunderland, and took the lead to a goal that should have been prevented. The champions stay top of the Premiership while the newcomers remain bottom, having lost every game so far. Yet as Sunderland's manager Mick McCarthy sought consolation he observed: "In the first half, I don't think they looked much better than us."
Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, didn't think his team played well, but put it down to preparation. "They knew they were preparing for the game for 15 days and we had one day. They knew these matches are not easy for the teams with a lot of internationals."
Doubtless true, but McCarthy himself complained eight of his men had been away with international squads last week. He also legitimately lamented the fact that Sunderland gave away the first of Chelsea's two goals with a couple of embarrassing errors.
On 54 minutes, Sunderland keeper Kelvin Davis somewhat carelessly threw the ball out to Andy Welsh, on the left. The hapless Welsh failed to control it, and it ran to Geremi who promptly struck a fierce but surely not irresistible low shot from 22 yards, which somehow slipped past the diving Davis. A traumatising goal indeed.
When Alan Stubbs had to go off at half-time, Mourinho realised they would be more vulnerable in the air, and on came Didier Drogba, who eventually and dashingly headed his team's second goal.
McCarthy sympathised with Welsh. "He cost us 15 grand from Stockport and was brilliant, helping us go up. He's made a mistake. He'll learn from it." As for the errant Davis, "Kelvin's come in and he held his hand up. He's better than that. He should have saved it."
Sunderland did not look as though they were going to score had they played deep into the night, but Chelsea's first-half performance was disappointing to put it mildly. "We didn't play very well," Mourinho confessed.
In that barren first half Chelsea's pattern looked unbalanced. Hernan Crespo never looked very happy as the solitary spearhead, which he was in the first half.
For Drogba, the goal he scored after 82 minutes, when set up by Michael Essien and Damien Duff, must have been something of a relief or a consolation. He leapt typically and powerfully above the opposition to head Duff's immaculate left-wing cross between Davis and the right-hand post.
Chelsea certainly looked livelier after substitutions were made in the second half. After a very short spell in the centre, Arjen Robben reverted to the right wing, and it was good to see Joe Cole employed not on the flank, which is never his true speciality, but in a more central position where he could influence the play with his skills and invention.
He also, he should not forget, has a powerful shot that on 68 minutes severely tested Davis, who could only push it away. Shortly before Chelsea's first goal, Essien and Robben had set up Frank Lampard, who, perhaps unleashing all the frustration he felt after Belfast, walloped a tremendous right-footed shot against the bar. Robben himself, on 62 minutes, characteristically threaded his way from the right between two defenders and shot from a narrow angle, when he probably should have passed, enabling Davis to save at the near post.
We shall see if, with their expensive embarrassment of riches, Chelsea settle down into a regular first-choice team. On Tuesday at home to Anderlecht in their first Champions League game, they will be without their enterprising Spanish international left-back, Asier Del Horno, who pulled a muscle near the end. The consequence, Mourinho clearly and resentfully felt, was his having played international football last Wednesday.
STAR MAN: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Player ratings. Chelsea: Cech 6, Geremi 6, Gallas 6, Terry 6, Del Horno 6, Essien 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (J Cole 57min, 6), Lampard 7, Gudjohnsen 6 (Duff h-t, 6), Robben 7, Crespo 6 (Drogba 54min, 6)
Sunderland: Davis 6, Nosworthy 6, Breen 6, Stubbs 6 (Welsh 52min, 6), Hoyte 6, Bassila 6, Elliott 6, Whitehead 6, Miller 6 (Le Tallec 80min, 6), Arca 6, Stead 6 (Gray h-t, 6)
Scorers: Chelsea: Geremi 54, Drogba 82
Referee: M Dean
Attendance: 41,969 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
people:
ESSIEN LEADS BLUES CRUISE Chelsea 2 Sunderland 0 Jack Steggles THEY SAY the sign of true champions is the ability to grind out results when not firing on all cylinders.
In that case Chelsea can bank on retaining the Premiership title they won last season.
The moody Blues were a long way from their best - their battery of big-name stars clearly suffering a hangover from midweek internationals.
But they polished off Sunderland - keeping yet another clean sheet in the process - to make it five straight wins, the club's best-ever Premiership start.
Sunderland by contrast are suffering their worst. They are still without a point and have now lost their last 20 Premiership games.
And their cause wasn't helped by sub Andy Welsh who gifted possession to Geremi who went on to score Chelsea's opener.
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But Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy refused to blame Welsh and said: "He had just come on the field when he made a mistake and I'm not going to crucify him for that.
"We've now gone five games without a point, so can we survive? We've got to believe we can and if we don't it won't be for the want of trying.
"We're not looking for sympathy and the only way to put things right is to win a game, starting with West Brom next week."
To their credit the Black Cats refused to hoist the white flag of surrender and gave it a go.
But they lacked the quality to trouble even a below-par Chelsea and Blues keeper Petr Cech did not have a serious shot to save.
Chelsea were without Claude Makelele, suffering from a knock after playing for France against Ireland in midweek. And they left Damien Duff and Didier Drogba on the bench.
Makelele's holding midfield role was given to Michael Essien, and he proved the pick of a very ordinary bunch.
Skipper John Terry made a surprise return from a knee injury that threatened to keep him out for a month. He got through the game without being seriously tested.
Sunderland, who gave debuts to Justin Hoyte, on loan from Arsenal, and Christian Bassila, realised there was no point sitting back and waiting for the Blues to steamroller them.
Tommy Miller created a promising situation when he cut in from the right, but he spoiled it with a poor final ball.
Chelsea responded with a swerving shot from Aiser Del Horno that Sunderland keeper Kelvin Davis kept out with his feet. And it needed a great tackle from old warhorse Alan Stubbs to keep out Frank Lampard as he swooped on a through-ball from Eidur Gudjohnsen.
Lampard, criticised by Sven Goran Eriksson for recent England performances, was not having his usual influence on the game and Chelsea's rhythm suffered as a result.
When Arjen Robben led a Chelsea break he wanted one touch too many and the ball was nipped off his toes.
Sunderland's fans had more reason to get excited in a disappointing first half for the champions. And that was a situation Mourinho was clearly determined to do something about.
He sent on Duff in place of Gudjohnsen after the break, while Sunderland replaced Jon Stead with Andy Gray.
Lampard finally burst into life in the 51st minute when he seized possession after Robben had been upended to lash a 20-yarder that crashed back off the bar with Davis beaten.
And two minutes later Chelsea were ahead after a McCarthy substitution that backfired.
He sent on Welsh in place of the injured Stubbs and a blunder by the new boy gifted Geremi a chance he gratefully accepted.
Welsh let the ball run away from him when Davis threw it out and Cameroon international Geremi, making his first start of the season, curled a 20-yard shot under the keeper.
Joe Cole took over from Shaun Wright-Phillips and got himself booked for falling theatrically under an innocuous challenge. Drogba wrapped it up for Chelsea in the 82nd minute, climbing above Julio Arca to head home a deep cross from Duff.
But the manner of the victory was far from convincing and another worry for Mourinho ahead of Tuesday's Champions League game with Anderlecht was a late thigh injury to Del Horno which reduced Chelsea to 10 men for the last three minutes.
CHELSEA: Cech 6 - Geremi 7, Gallas 6, Terry 6, Del Horno 6 - Lampard 6, *ESSIEN 8, Gudjohnsen 6 (Duff 45mins, 7) - Wright-Phillips 6 Cole 57mins, 6), Crespo 6 (Drogba 54mins, 7), Robben 6.
SUNDERLAND: Davis 6 - Nosworthy 6, *BREEN 7, Stubbs 6 (Welsh 51mins, 5), Hoyte 6 - Bassila 6 - Elliott 6, Miller 6 (Le Tallec 82), Whitehead 6, Arca 6 - Stead 5 (Gray 45mins, 5). Ref: M Dean 6.
SHINER :LAMPARD Saw one of his trademark shots nearly snap the cross bar
SHOCKER :WELSH A poor blunder by the newly introduced sub that gifted Chelsea their first goalAttendance: 41,969
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Robben takes centre stage to lift Chelsea
Chelsea 2 - 0 Sunderland
Stuart Barness at Stamford Bridge Sunday September 11, 2005The Observer
The form book delivered the expected result as Chelsea maintained their 100 per cent start with a swaggering second-half performance.A rare goal by Geremi on his first start of the season set them on the way and they never looked back after that. But spare a thought for Sunderland, who resisted stoutly in the opening period and indeed for a time raised the prospect of ending a run that now extends to 20 successive Premiership defeats - 15 at the end of the 2002-03 campaign and five so far this time.
The visitors, who had Christian Bassila making his debut as a holding midfield player, certainly started without any inferiority complex, stroking the ball about cleanly and winning the first corner.
But when Chelsea, with John Terry making an earlier-than-expected return from injury, slipped into gear for the first time, Hernan Crespo brought the ball through threateningly, enabling Asier del Horno to strike a shot that ricocheted to safety off the right arm of Kelvin Davis.
Shaun Wright-Phillips and Arjen Robben swapped flanks with barely 10 minutes gone and Robben immediately posed problems, drifting past two players as he cut inside for a shot that deflected to safety off Alan Stubbs.
Stubbs was again in the right place as Eidur Gudjohnsen tried to thread a pass through the middle to Frank Lampard, the former Everton defender anticipating the danger well.
When Nyron Nosworthy's ball-winning challenge on Gudjohnsen set up Jon Stead for a shot driven straight at Petr Cech, it provided Chelsea with a further nudge that their opponents were up for the task. Then, as signs of frustration began to appear around the ground, the big centre-forward drifted wide to go past Del Horno and deserved better than to see his ball into the heart of the goalmouth go begging because of a lack of support.
If the first half had been a somewhat sedate affair, certainly from Chelsea's point of view, the opening 10 minutes of the second simply crackled, with a flurry of substitutions, Lampard striking the crossbar and the champions taking the lead.
Robben's switch into a central midfield role, albeit briefly, did most to energise his side as he began to run at defenders. Lampard responded with a thundering 25-yarder, the ball bouncing off the underside of the woodwork, hitting Davis and bouncing away.
Soon after, Davis experienced a nightmare few seconds. His throw-out went astray, Geremi drove goalwards from 22 yards with the outside of his right boot and the ball went in underneath the goalkeeper's body.
A booking for Joe Cole for diving was followed by the substitute having a shot fisted away by Davis, who was having something of a torrid time. His goal came under constant siege as Chelsea drove forward in waves.
Determination by Andy Welsh briefly relieved the pressure, but the combined attention of Geremi and William Gallas halted his run on the edge of the penalty box.
Sunderland's resistance was broken for a second time after 82 minutes when Damien Duff crossed and Didier Drogba climbed at the far post to squeeze in a header. inside the far post.
Man of the match Arjen Robben - provided the impetus for victory
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chelsea 2 Sunderland 0 Drogba deepens Sunderland's gloom By Ronald Atkin Published: 11 September 2005 Jose Mourinho had forecast "a good examination" against bottom-of-the table Sunderland in the aftermath of his players' midweek international commitments, and so it proved - for the first half at least. Then the mercurial manager pitched Damien Duff, Didier Drogba and Joe Cole into the action, two goals were netted as the opposition buckled and the leaders go marching on, with maximum points and no goals conceded in five matches.
For Sunderland and their ultra-loyal travelling contingent of fans the news gets bleaker by the game. They remain without a point on their return to the Premiership and have now chalked up 20 straight losses in the top flight, including the tail-end of their relegation season two years ago. Claiming that his players had performed well, Mick McCarthy lamented, "The one big negative is that we keep getting beat." They were up against the meanest defence in the League but even so never looked like troubling Petr Cech, who had one half-hearted Jon Stead dribbler to collect.
"My players came back tired from 15 days away with 10 different managers and 10 different methodologies, some happy because they had won, some unhappy because they lost," said Mourinho. "And then they had to play against a team with 15 days to prepare for this game. "No wonder that today we didn't play well." Well enough, however, to brush aside the feeble challenge of Sunderland, who made plain their intentions by playing only Stead up front and stationing their new signing from Strasbourg, Christian Bassila, in front of the back four.
The good news for Chelsea was that John Terry, not fit enough to play for England because of a knee problem, got the rest which his manager wanted and returned to club duty. An undemanding return it was, too. But that was expected, so much so that Chelsea felt confident enough to operate with a three-man back line, losing one of that trio, Asier Del Horno, with a pulled muscle just before the end, which set Mourinho going once more about those dratted international demands which had put too much of a strain on his left-back.
The first half was so forgettable that Chelsea fans were muttering about their side's barren showing. They certainly looked off the pace, with Kelvin Davis being only marginally more employed in Sunderland's goal than Cech at the other end.
Duff came on for the second half in place of Eidur Gudjohnsen and Chelsea stepped up the pace and the effort. Five minutes had gone when Lampard struck the underside of the bar with a tremendous effort which bounced off Davis and three minutes later Chelsea were in front.
Andy Welsh, Sunderland's half-time replacement for Stead, failed to control a thrown clearance from Davis midway inside his own half and G�remi stole the ball from him, strode forward and unleashed a low shot from 25 yards which evaded the keeper's despairing dive.
On came Drogba (for Hernan Crespo) and Cole (for Shaun Wright-Phillips) as Chelsea took control, the only blip coming when Cole drew an immediate yellow card for an outrageous dive on the edge of the penalty area. Now the fans were happy, chanting "Stand up for the champions".
Davis, a busy fellow following the loss of Alan Stubbs with concussion, almost let an Arjen Robben effort slip between his feet but did much better to repel Cole's dipping long-range shot. Drogba was his usual profligate self, missing two good chances. First, he failed to apply his head to Robben's cross and then did not move quickly enough to Lampard's short pass.
But the other inevitability about the striker is that he doesn't miss too often, and, with nine minutes remaining, Duff crossed from near the left-hand corner flag and Drogba rose majestically above his marker to direct a downward header to Davis' left.
Mourinho offered a nod of approval to his defence: "It is good to feel that when we score a goal we will win. One day we will concede a goal, but that's not a drama." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
telegraph:
Chelsea fumble lines againBy James Mossop at Stamford Bridge (Filed: 11/09/2005)
Chelsea (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 0
Theories have been wrapping around Chelsea, the champions who have lost their lustre despite their 100 per cent record. Tired, lethargic, uninspired, getting away with it has been the drift and while a place out in front at the top of the Premiership should be the perfect answer to all the questions, the doubts remained.
Even in victory they linger. Defeating the worst team in the league, pointless and hapless Sunderland, was hard, workmanlike graft. For that Sunderland take some credit. They had a plan and they only began to waver after Geremi had given Chelsea the lead early in the second half.
Fans' favourite: Didier Drogba salutes the crowd after his goal Until then, Chelsea had fumbled. They had been unable to make an impression apart from a strike by Frank Lampard, still in the below-par mood that has baffled his England supporters, rattled the underside of the Sunderland bar.
It was easy to feel sorry for Sunderland and as manager Mick McCarthy led his players down the tunnel at half-time he was entitled to feel that the strategy, based on tenacity and teamwork, was working to perfection.
His team had run hard for the 45 minutes, frustrating Chelsea's all-stars, who were making Lampard's supposed tiredness look like a contagious affliction. Every move they made was countered in a first half of nil chances for either side.
Maybe the travelling internationals who fill Chelsea's blue shirts had left their enthusiasm on foreign fields while Stephen Elliott, the Ulsterman who helped to embarrass Sven-Goran Eriksson's feckless England on Wednesday night, appeared to have energy to burn.
Chelsea were missing Claude Makelele, who operates at a consistently high level in front of the back four, but that was only part of their problem. Michael Essien was a suitable replacement but with Ricardo Carvalho, Joe Cole, Damien Duff and Didier Drogba on the bench, you had to wonder what was going through Jose Mourinho's mind.
McCarthy's team, assembled at a cost of £7 million, a fraction of Chelsea's vulgar worth, had the honesty and comradeship that meant Mourinho would have to find something to break down their resistance.
He had seen Dean Whitehead and Elliott surfing past left back Aiser del Horno too often and although Arjen Robben and Shaun Wright-Phillips switched wings on occasion it was gong to take more than that to confuse the Sunderland defence where Gary Breen and Andy Stubbs stood tall and firm in front of a reliable goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis.
Mourinho's immediate response was to send out the Republic of Ireland trickster, Duff, in place of Eidur Gudjohnsen, whose influence had been minimal. Robben moved inside with Duff wide on the left.
Within minutes of the half starting Nigel Welsh replaced the injured Stubbs just in time to make the mistake that allowed Geremi to take the possession and drive the ball past Davis, low through a forest of legs after 53 minutes.
For the first time in the match the Chelsea supporters were on their feet, decibels soaring as they realised they were suddenly on to something good. Their afternoon could have been even sweeter had Robben not selfishly tried to score from an angle when Crespo's replacement Drogba, who gave Robben a verbal lashing, was waiting for the ball to be squared for a tap in.
Soon after, Drogba apologised when he missed a good chance, but he added the second, drifting in behind defenders to head home Duff's left cross on 82 minutes. They will need to step up the pace against Anderlecht on Tuesday.
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