Closed Sunderland 0-0 Chelsea

[iseah100 5,612]

Poor performance, but Sunderland defended beautifullu, gave us no space and frustrated us. Not the end of the world.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

S'land played City tuff last season. Don't you remember?

Don't pay attention too much on it. After checked it, they actually have a good record against City last season. Hopefully it is continue this season.

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

I hate Sunderland. Sorry, what I meant to say is I really hate Sunderland.

But, oh well, still undefeated and playing for lots of trophies, unlike Sunderland.

I guess we cheer for the draw tomorrow or Southampton victory, no?

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

[cosmicway 1,333]

Looked like training session to me.

No one stretched a leg forward.

We all know what happens when we play against a weaker side and it's 0-0 after the interval - siege of Marsah Matrouh.
Have you seen any of that ?
It's little loss, but a loss of two points nevertheless.

I don't buy the stuff about Wednesday's match in Germany because that developed into a stroll in the park.

The players should be careful, because Jose is a nice guy but come June he can say to you "come on my boy, go to Qatar to find a team".

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Sunderland deserved the point. We've perfected this kind of style of play before so there is no point criticising them. It just shows how difficult it can be to play against such disciplined organisation.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I have to admit, I'm happy with a point.

I said several times before this game that this is exactly the sort of fixture we fuck up in, so to take something isn't bad at all. Sunderland played fantastically well and defensively they were the best unit we've come up against all season. Credit to them and Poyet for that. They deserved at least a point, perhaps even all three. Based on that, I'm not too displeased.

I though we showed a severe drop in intensity and invention, however. José needs to consider rotating his squad around more often because Azpilicueta and Hazard in particularly looked hopeless and/or exhausted yesterday. Matic wasn't his imperious self. I felt incredibly sorry for Cesc and Willian, the two of them were full of energy and looking to try and pick holes in that Sunderland defence, but it was borderline impossible. We have a squad for two reasons: 1; to replace injured/tired players, and 2; to prevent complacency striking. We have far too many players who look "comfortable" in their selection right now. I think we'll see a couple of changes on Wednesday.

It's just a shame Ramires was injured because if he'd have been fit, you'd arguably have sacrificed Cesc and just let him run and run and run. We need direct play yesterday and with Hazard looking disinterested at times, we need that little bit of grit and panache that Rambo can offer. I felt we looked more threatening when Costa went off, in truth, I felt he looked exhausted and his movement was minimal, although, in fairness to him, any lone striker would have struggled. We looked better when Drogba came on and we were more direct. When Schurrle and Remy came on, we had more speed and direct play out wide as well.

I think José needs to consider that the tika-taka won't work at places like Sunderland and Stoke, for instance.

Sometimes, instead of trying to cause death by a thousand knife wounds, using a bazooka is more of an appropriate tactic.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Sometimes, instead of trying to cause death by a thousand knife wounds, using a bazooka is more of an appropriate tactic.

[Jase 43,479]

Sometimes, instead of trying to cause death by a thousand knife wounds, using a bazooka is more of an appropriate tactic.

Still can't beat the Ivanovic-rhino reference from last night though.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Was I the only 1 who saw Rambo warm up and then go back to the bench? He was just what we needed.. Hopefully Drogba starts against Totters and Willian gets a rest. Maybe give Salah a run?

Well done Sunderland, great defending.

So this is what it must have felt like to play 13/14 Chelsea...

[Laylabelle 9,535]

Usually dodgy at home so hopefully other way round this time.we didn't loose and this won't be the only game like that.just as long as don't start a trend of it espically with the xmas crazed run coming up

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Was I the only 1 who saw Rambo warm up and then go back to the bench?

Probably, because he was not on the bench!

Sometimes, instead of trying to cause death by a thousand knife wounds, using a bazooka is more of an appropriate tactic.

Fucking terrorist...

[Viper22 2,418]

Last 15 minutes were weird as fuck, they seemed to have everyone in attack and defense at the same damn time.

Tbh in the last 15mins they were brilliant. I imagined that's what it must have been like for Barca/Bayern to play us in the CL in 2012!

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

I didn't see the match, but from what I read in here, it seems Poyet do 'the Mourinho' to us? I imagine he has learned and watched several Chelsea match recorded videos. If even Jose himself who 'created' it, couldn't have a solution to break it, then who else can?

[The Rising Sun 711]

We were not aggressive enough or fast enough.

Sunderland were well organised and fair play to them.

We are a team which need rythm, that too with pace.

From the beginning they slowed the game down by packing players back.

That being said, our play was too contemplative throughout the game.

Within the first 30 minutes it was pretty clear we were not going to get through balls down the middle, so that is the only thing i can fault Jose for.

Instead of shooting from way out, the strategy should have changed to bombarding aerial crosses at every chance we got.

That makes the chances of your player winning the ball 50/50, and with crosses, mistakes happen and chances come.

That would have also completely negated their gameplan.

Well done Sunderland. You did great! Could have won it.

And for Chelsea - pace. We didnt have it from the beginning, and thats when we effectively lost the battle. Dont know if this result calls for some rotation or not, but these players looked worn out, for whatever reason.

I expect a rip roaring performance against spurs though. We will have more space to play, and as long as we start fast, i believe we should win it.

[bababoom 4,478]

majority of our players were invisible, the tempo we played at was shocking (far too slow) and the fact Sunderland defended very well. You can call it parking the bus but lets not forget our own team has done it plenty of times in the past and we praised it saying they were 'heroic' 'warriors' etc..., it was just one of those days.

[Cosmin 2,484]

Fair play to Sunderland. They defended very well, without playing like thugs. We seemed to lack ideas, probably because Hazard was in a bad day. The best thing is that we are still unbeaten and still on top of the table. This kind of days are perfectly normal and this wasn't the last one this season. We will still drop points, but as long as it doesn't happen often, everything is fine. A win against Tottenham will make it great again.

[Special Juan 28,141]

We just need to accept this result and move on, and we will.

[chelseafc9010 224]

Another brilliant argument.sunderland would have had 5+ men in the middle but while having hazard and willian free out wide? LOLOLOLOL. Its called stretching a defence. And if you think that wide players staying wide against a packed defence would not have helped in breaking down a defence, then I have nothing to say to you.

So you are basically agreeing with what I said about fullbacks pushing up to create width, thanks pal.

[The Chels 2,502]

Was I the only 1 who saw Rambo warm up and then go back to the bench?

That was Zouma I think. Why would he even need him to warm up? Jose was probably going to bring him on in case we scored.

[Fernando 6,585]

Chelsea fans complaining about Sunderland defensive tactics is cringe worthy to say the least.

@Term-X, always bring pictures about deluded City fans, but seriously we got those everywhere even here!