A lot can change in five‑and‑a‑half months, but as an early winter chill descended on Wearside last week – both meteorologically and metaphorically – Sunderland were determined that some things should remain the same. Just as they had beaten Chelsea on the final day of last season in May to ensure European qualification for the first time in 53 years, they did so again on Sunday to lift themselves off the bottom of the Premier League.
The Sunderland performance was certainly familiar to their head coach, Régis Le Bris – “the identity, the intensity, the togetherness, the way we managed the game” – on the way to three crucial points.
Ultimately a patched-up defence, without the injured Dan Ballard and the banned Omar Alderete, kept Chelsea at enough distance to allow Robin Roefs a tranquil afternoon amid the tumult. Chelsea may be developing into a chaotic must‑watch under Xabi Alonso but they were subdued here, and fall out of the top four. “We didn’t produce enough to deserve to win,” Alonso said. “We lacked a bit of patience and creativity.”
Margins were paper thin in a game decided by two first-half penalty calls, the first not awarded to Chelsea after Luke O’Nien’s clumsy challenge on Cole Palmer, deemed after VAR consideration to be fractionally outside the area, and the second given to Sunderland by Jarred Gillett after Levi Colwill brought down the ebullient Brian Brobbey; the defender argued, not without justification, that the Dutch striker had a handful of his shirt too but the award stood.
Alonso, as ever, made no excuses, focusing not on the officiating and more on how he was “not happy with how we defended that situation”. Enzo Le Fée had been equally unequivocal just beyond the half‑hour, sending Mike Penders the wrong way and dispatching into the goalkeeper’s bottom-right corner for the game’s only goal.
Europe may be a blessing for Sunderland but the full-time mood had been bleak after the latest alarming performance in the home defeat against Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday. It had felt like a season watershed and only the captain, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Meunier and Roefs survived the cull here. That the talismanic Xhaka, the subject of strong summer interest from his former coach Alonso, had his afternoon truncated by injury after less than three minutes, felt like yet more of the ill fortune dogging Sunderland.
There was no feeling sorry for themselves, though. With this the start of a challenging quartet of fixtures leading into the Tyne‑Wear derby next month, it felt like this match had to be attacked to prevent an early season hiccup turning into a full mid‑season tangle with relegation trouble. And Chelsea were greeted with determination and aggression, with Xhaka’s withdrawal not blowing that plan off course. Two zesty incisions by Chemsdine Talbi in the opening quarter-hour, in his first Premier League start this season, caused Alonso’s men flutters, the first leading to a blocked Trai Hume shot and the second presenting Brobbey with a clear opening that he would have expected to convert.
The passion was there, the precision maybe less so. O’Nien’s challenge on Palmer elicited a penalty appeal that did not end up being costly after the VAR check and Morgan Rogers headed wide from a Marco Palestra cross, but Chelsea could not capitalise on any potential home nerves. If anyone was prone to belated Halloween frights it was the Blues, particularly at the hands of Brobbey, who led the line with enormous presence. He took on and beat the last man Wesley Fofana before steering his shot just too high, past Penders’s near post, and then won the penalty that led to Le Fée’s winner. “He is stoppable,” Alonso said, “but only when you defend better than we did.”
Such was Chelsea’s bluntness in the first 45 that the coach opted for not just a substitution but a reshuffle at the break, with Estêvão replacing the injured Colwill, beefing up the attack with Moisés Caicedo slotting into the defence. Sunderland continued to fight tooth and nail in a game that threatened occasionally to bubble over. Meunier was booked for a late tackle on Caicedo and shortly afterwards Brobbey was cautioned for wrestling Roméo Lavia to the ground, a continuation of an ongoing feud between the pair. When he was substituted, spent, for the enduringly popular Wilson Isidor halfway through the second half Chelsea must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Estêvão made one burst through the middle on to a Rogers pass but Reinildo Mandava stepped across to snuff out the opportunity. Yet even with little possession Sunderland looked sharper. A ball broke for Isidor after Chelsea failed to clear Le Fée’s through ball, Penders saving and the rebound not breaking for the Frenchman before Pep Chavarría cleared.
As the last 10 minutes approached Alonso sent on Geovany Quenda for Chavarría, and the young winger finally conjured a goal attempt worthy of the description, fizzing a shot just wide of Roefs’s far post via deflection. Talbi, finishing as he started, pinged one just wide from distance on the break as the home side still looked more likely, even with a third of possession. Sunderland had rewarded their crowd’s vociferous faith.
