Sturridge stirred by cheeky finish

CHELSEA striker Daniel Sturridge feared Wes Brown would rob him of his wonder goal at Sunderland.

The 22-year-old lit up Wearside with the cheekiest of finishes to establish a 2-0 lead for his side at the Stadium of Light when he backheeled his 51st-minute shot past goalkeeper Simon Mignolet as he came from his line.

But Sturridge was then forced to look on as the ball dribbled agonisingly towards the bottom corner with defender Brown in hot pursuit. However, the former Manchester United man failed to get there in time, much to the striker’s relief as his audacity paid off and he avoided a dressing down for not taking a more conventional approach.

Sturridge said: “I was hoping he wouldn’t get it and I was thinking, ‘Oh God, he’s got it’. It was a huge moment for it to actually hit the back of the net because I thought he was going to clear it, so I am very happy.”

Sturridge’s contribution effectively wrapped up the points after skipper John Terry had fired the visitors in front after 18 minutes.

But the traffic was largely one way before the break with Nicolas Anelka, preferred to Fernando Torres in attack, and Juan Mata repeatedly stretching the home defence.

Indeed, Bardsley could yet find himself in hot water for what appeared to be a stamp on Mata which went unnoticed by referee Lee Probert as the Black Cats battled desperately to stem the tide.

Having reached half-time just one goal behind, Steve Bruce’s men returned determined to drag themselves back into the game, but Sturridge’s party piece ensured that substitute Ji Dong-won’s first goal in English football, which arrived in injury time, counted for little.

Chelsea boss Andre Villa-Boas was a happy man after seeing his side reproduce their training ground work on the pitch for the first time this season, significantly without £50m man Torres until the final 16 minutes. However, he insisted the Spaniard’s absence from the starting line-up was indicative of nothing other than Anelka’s form and freshness.

He said: “I have four wonderful strikers and all of them compete highly for the forward positions. All of them offer different kinds of things because they have different talents, and today the choice fell to Anelka.”

SUNDERLAND: Mignolet, Bardsley (Elmohamady 62), Bramble, Brown, Richardson, Larsson, Cattermole (Wickham 65), Gardner, Colback, Sessegnon (Ji 82), Bendtner.

CHELSEA: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Mata (Torres 74), Lampard, Ramires, Meireles, Sturridge (Malouda 62), Anelka (Romeu 79).