Sunderland hold Premier League leaders Chelsea to goalless draw
LONDON --
Chelsea failed to win for only the third time in the Barclays Premier League season as Sunderland held Jose Mourinho's men to a goalless draw at the Stadium of Light.
Chelsea, for once this season, looked a little uncomfortable. Sunderland, with a performance of ferocious determination and organization, first frustrated the league leader and then threatened to defeat it and, although Chelsea remain seven points clear at the top if the table, it was made to look uncomfortable by the sheer energy with which Sunderland played.
''The other team wanted to stop us winning,'' Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said after the match. ''To defend well and a lot isn't a crime. It's part of the game. It's strategy. My players tried everything. They took risks.''
There was much scorn when Lee Cattermole was named North-East Football Writers' Player of the Year for 2014, but his transformation this year has been remarkable. When Gus Poyet was appointed last October, Cattermole had been frozen out of the team and seemed to be on his way out of the club. Yet he made himself indispensable during the run to the Capital One League Cup final and the late surge to avoid relegation last season. Here he was characteristically combative and even at one point early in the first half, dribbled past Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic.
It's blocks he does best though. He'd already made two headlong charges into shots when, just before the half hour he flew out of the traps, blocked a Matic shot, his momentum taking him on into the meaty Serbian. There were two almighty slaps that reverberated around the ground but Cattermole, shorts hitched as high as ever, trotted on imperious, finally collapsing only when the ball had gone out of play -- and even then he didn't need a physio.
For the most part, though, the first half was a tale of Chelsea possession. Willian went close with a low drive that Costel Pantilimon feathered on to the post and some neat play down the right led to Willian feeding Branisav Ivanovic, who was denied by an excellent save from Pantilimon. It was sign of how little impact Chelsea had made that Diego Costa was frustrated enough just before halftime to kick out at John O'Shea after being floored by a heft challenge from the defender. Both escaped punishment: O'Shea probably should have been booked and Costa could easily have been sent off.
Costa did collect a yellow card 11 minutes into the second half after catching Wes Brown with a flailing arm and so will miss Wednesday's game against Tottenham through suspension.
And Sunderland, which has struggled for creativity this season, did offer the occasional threat, most notably when a Cattermole cross was deflected into the path of Santiago Vergini, whose first time shot on the turn brushed the top of the bar bar on its way over. Connor Wickham, much quieter this season after the heroics of the tail end of last had an excellent game, his running troubling Ivanovic and tempering his forward surges to an extent.
One of the great strengths of this Chelsea side is the variety of its goal threat. For all its enterprising football in midfield, a six of its 30 goals this season before this game had come from set-plays and Gary Cahill almost added to that tally five minutes into the second half, getting between O'Shea and Brown to guide a header goalwards, but straight at Pantilimon.
The longer the game went on, though, the more Chelsea seemed to have run out of ideas. Cattermole and Sebastian Larsson were tireless in their midfield harrying, adding weight to the theory raised after Chelsea had drawn away at Manchester United that its fluency can be inhibited if a side gets tight to Fabregas.
Sunderland's ideas are rarely plentiful in forward areas, but the introduction of Jozy Altidore after 63 minutes seemed an inspired throw of the dice by Poyet. Steven Fletcher had battled away as a lone forward without much success and Altidore, having scored his one league goal for Sunderland against Chelsea as well as winning the penalty in the 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge last season, is something of a Chelsea specialist.
He won a couple of flick-ons -- itself enough to be a significant improvement on his last appearance, when he failed to complete a pass in 12 minutes off the bench at Crystal Palace -- and made a general nuisance of himself, at one point skipping over Chelsea legs like a frisky mountain goat before weight of numbers eventually led to his shot being smothered. He is a player who invokes frustration, but there is also affection for him at Sunderland, as evidenced by the cheers that greeted every little surge he made.
''We stopped Chelsea from scoring for the first time this season, we knew how difficult it was,'' Poyet said. ''I saw the Champions League game (against Schalke). We needed to be good in terms of defense.
''I'm very pleased with the performance. The quantity of work in the defensive area that we did in the last four, five weeks after the Southampton game, it's showing.''
The lesson is there. Chelsea is unbeaten, but not unbeatable.
FOXSoccer.com's newswire services contributed to this report.
