Black Cats in dreamland as Chelsea collapse

CHELSEA’S inherent weaknesses – and with it their title challenge – were brutally picked apart for the rest of the Premier League to see following a remarkable performance by Sunderland at Stamford Bridge yesterday that saw Steve Bruce’s side win 3-0.

The defeat, secured by goals from Nedum Onuoha, Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck, was Chelsea’s first at home in the league since February and Sunderland’s first at the Bridge in a decade but the significance of the result goes far beyond that.

The way Carlo Ancelotti’s makeshift defence, now only two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, were pulled apart by a team bold enough to play two up front has ended any mystique about Chelsea’s impenetrable home form and also shown the rest of the Premier League that the club’s squad may not be as strong as it looks on first glance.

The absence of John Terry, who pulled up with pain his hamstring after training on Saturday, was always going to be keenly felt but with only one other defender – Brazilian centre-back Alex – out injured, you would have thought a club of Chelsea’s size would be able to cope.

In fact, they did not. And although Ancelotti has refused to spend money in the transfer market because he trusts his up-and-coming youngsters, the fact he overlooked Terry’s natural deputy Jeffrey Bruma in favour of right-back Paula Ferreira – who formed a shaky partnership with Branislav Ivanovic – suggests he is not telling the whole truth.

There are problems in other areas of the field, too; with Frank Lampard still out for another three weeks and Michael Essien suspended, Chelsea were left with the ineffective and lightweight Ramires in midfield and found themselves second best.

Was it a coincidence, too, that this performance – by far their worst of the season – came just 48 hours after assistant manager Ray Wilkins, one of the most popular figures at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground, was ruthlessly sacked by chief executive Ron Gourlay and received little support from an embarrassed Ancelotti?

All these factors will be keenly studied by Chelsea’s title rivals, in particular Arsenal following their morale-boosting victory at Everton and of course Manchester United, who found themselves similarly out of touch and out of form at Aston Villa on Saturday but still had the wherewithal to come back from 2-0 down and rescue a point.

But maybe this is one of those occasions when it would be harsh to concentrate for too long on Chelsea’s shortcomings when their opponents Sunderland, typified by their energetic and enthusiastic attacking pairing of Gyan and Welbeck, were such a breath of fresh air on a heady day for the North East side.

Remember, this is a team who were thrashed 5-1 at Newcastle two weeks ago on a day manager Steve Bruce described as one of the worst of his career, so you can understand his elation.

“I hope it will be Sunderland people are talking about after this and not Chelsea,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often that you come and beat this lot 3-0 in their backyard and I don’t think it will happen often again.

“But we took the game to them. Chelsea are so used to playing against one striker because people are frightened to come here because they are such a great team – they don’t want to get embarrassed. But we thought ‘sod it’ let’s have a go. And it worked.

“But sometimes we talk too much about systems, it’s a game of football and you have to play well. Today we played very, very well.’’

Chelsea can have no complaints about the end result because Sunderland were outstanding all afternoon and a three-goal victory did not flatter them.

In fact goalkeeper Petr Cech had to be at his very best to make a fine double save from Gyan and Kieran Richardson in the first half, and the Czech international also kept out Welbeck when he was clean through.

So when Sunderland grabbed an opening goal on the stroke of half-time it was no real surprise – although the manner of the goal could not have been expected.

Chelsea failed to pay heed when right-back Nedum Onuoha picked up the ball on the left of the penalty area and the English defender, on loan from Man City, slalomed his way spectacularly through the Blues defence before cutting a shot across Cech and into the net.

Chelsea, who had created few clear cut chances themselves, were astonished – and the situation worsened after the break when Sunderland, buoyed by their success, made it 2-0 after Jordan Henderson slipped a pass through for Gyan to score in the 53rd minute.

Finally Chelsea were roused into action, but they found Sunderland as gritty in defence as they were energetic in attack and could not find a reply.

In fact, Welbeck got the goal his performance so deserved when he took advantage of Ashley Cole’s woeful back-pass in the 88th minute, a score that summed up both Sunderland’s energy and Chelsea’s miserable defensive display.

The question now is whether this match will prove pivotal in the title race or will instead be seen as one of those freak results that had no bearing on the final table.

That’s hard to predict but certainly if other Premier League sides come to regard it as a blueprint for beating Chelsea we could see more managers saying ‘sod it’ at Stamford Bridge this season.