Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings
The match began with a lot of chaotic energy, especially from the home side but eventually we settled into the expected pattern of Chelsea dominating possession and Sunderland sitting back and looking to counter. And that suited our opposition just fine, keeping us contained to useless passing in the middle of the park and threatening every time they would get possession and come forward at pace.
At the same time, Chelsea offered little threat outside of an occasional foray down the right wing from Pedro Neto or Marco Palestra. The lack of a center forward and just three attacking players was not doing us any favors.
It was from one of those counters that Sunderland should have taken the lead; thankfully Brian Brobbey guided the ball wide of the post despite it being put on a plate for him. Brobbey had easily outdueled Levi Colwill in the process, and that wouldn't be the first time that would happen.
After the letoff of the Brobbey chance, Chelsea actually created a couple dangerous situations. Unfortunately, Morgan Rogers matched Brobbey's wastefulness by putting a wide open header wide.
And then Cole Palmer appeared to have won a penalty when he burst through the defensive line, but the referee did not favor us (a bit of a theme, that) and VAR deemed the foul to have occurred just outside the area. And just when it looked like we would be able to build from there into some actual ascendancy, Brobbey was gifted a penalty by the combination of some weak refereeing and even weaker defending, and Enzo Le Fée made no mistake.
It was Sunderland's only shot on target of the half and would be their only shot on target until the final few minutes. Xabi Alonso made a big change at half time with Colwill going off and Estêvão coming on, but clear cut chances were still in rather short supply.
Danny Welbeck (and Malo Gusto) would arrive on the scene at the hour-mark, but, again, the narrative changed very little. Estêvão had a half-chance tackled away from him after a good pass from Rogers but the home side continued to have the upper hand physically and emotionally.
Chelsea tried to press for an equalizer as the minutes ticked away, but it was Mike Penders who was called into action instead. Geovany Quenda saw a shot arrow just wide of the far post in the final ten minutes and Welbeck put a diving header just over the bar in added-on time, but it feels like we could've played for many more hours and never actually score.
We've yet to work out how to actually carry a threat in a back-four/midfield-three setup And we've yet to work out how to carry any threat without João Pedro At least Alonso made some early changes this time? We've now lost 5 of our last 6 games at the Stadium of Light Next up: another international break of reflection KTBFFH