A miraculous and spirited outing against the Barclays Premier League champions, Chelsea at Standford Bridge by visiting Sunderland was celebrated by friends and foes alike. Sunderland outclassed Chelsea and defeated the champions with a lot of ease. From the onset, Sunderland seemed to believe in their ability as The Blues went about business arrogantly.
Steve Bruce started with 2 pronged attack of Asamoah Gyan and Welbeck. The pair were a handful for the Chelsea defence as they caught the hosts for pace in transition periods. Without the work-horse quality of Michael Essien, the midfield of Flourent Malouda and Mikel Obi was no match for Zenden and Karen Richardson and Henderson.
Titus Bramble and former Manchester City defender Onuoha did a good job in keeping Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka under locks and keys. Onuoha had the luxury of foraging forward and waltz past bemused Chelsea central defence and slide the ball under a desperately sprawling Petr Cech. Cech had to be at his best to keep the score-line respectable.
The match was won in midfield as Sunderland competed well for each ball and winning the second balls. In one duel won in the middle third, a swift conversion from defence to attack Henderson found hard running Gyan whose second touch beat Cech for the second goal. Zenden celebrated by doing the African dance Gyan style. Welbeck finished off the aging champions when Ashley Cole played him square, trying to get a back pass to Cech.
Foes, Arsenal and Manchester United jubilated in unison and the result opens up the race that Chelsea seemed to be running away with. A defeat for The Blues would eventually arrive. It would be hard to imagine that coming at Standford Bridge. Of all the teams, Sunderland would rank very low as the team to do that. Given that they did, the score-line would be the narrowest of margins. For the followers of Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti will find it hard to be forgiven for the 3-0 margin.
It will be back to the drawing board for The Blues, but maybe, it is the beginning of the end of the dominance the side that had made it their trademark to bully smaller teams and bullying giants with as much disrespect. Who do you think will benefit more from this result?
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