EPL Round 16: Chelsea FC vs Sunderland AFC

By: Lucas | December 8th, 2007

This should be easy, right?

Most fans would be pleased with a point from Chelsea today, and it looks like Keane feels the same way, going with a defensive 4-5-1 formation with Kenwyne Jones alone up top (and I have poker buddies to vouch that I was blathering on and on last night about how I think Kenwyne is going to get a goal today). Going into Stamford Bridge and playing a hunker-down defensive game — I’m not optimistic about the chances for success there. If Chelsea get one early it could turn into another Goodison horror show.

I’ll be back at halftime with thoughts.

***HALFTIME***

Sunderland are a bit lucky to be only down 1-0, but Chelsea’s forwards haven’t done much. The only guy in the park as slow as Greg Halford is Andriy Shevchenko. Salomon Kalou hit the woodwork at 5′ and Shawn Wright-Phillips looked like he was taken down in the box by Dean Whitehead about 10′.

Sunderland’s only real threat is Kenwyne, by himself, winning headers vs John Terry. Our set pieces have been awful and there have been some very dodgy moments on defense; Darren Ward in goal again has looked OK, but isn’t getting much help from his back line. Quite frankly Chelsea are playing Sunderland off the pitch right now, but with their dysfunctional strike force it’s still only 1-0. I’ll take it.

***FULL TIME***

2-0 Chelsea. Sunderland put up a bit of a challenge in the 2nd half, but never managed to seriously threaten Carlo Cudicini’s goal. Danny Higganbotham was called for a foul in the box on Alex and Frank Lampard converted in the 75th minute.

Roy Keane took Kenwyne off after just 66 minutes, which I found puzzling, considering he was by far our lone bright spot in terms of attack. But Jones’ replacement Daryl Murphy and fellow substitute Anthony Stokes did breathe a little life into the Sunderland attack. Too little, too late, though, as Chelsea got their penalty and the game was pretty much over at that point.

No shame in losing at Stamford Bridge, but once again the team played very hard and were just overcome by a vast gulf in talent separating them from their opponents. We have some crippling injuries right now (Nosworthy, Edwards, Richardson) that expose some serious lack of depth (which Keane can address in January).

Liam Miller went a little bonkers right at the end, giving John Terry a full body tackle. After Chelsea sub Claudio Pizzaro kneed Miller in the groin, Miller retaliated by shoving Pizzaro in the face and getting a red card for his trouble (if you’re going to get a red card for being “the second guy in the fight” at least make it count and break that douchebag’s nose or something).

I’ll have post-match reactions later this weekend.