First away trip of the season and FA HQ were sending us to the Stadium of Light for the second consecutive league away match in a row. We were all rather scathing about the ‘Abramowarts not-so-express’ when it squeaked its way into platform 6 at Kings X, but if nothing else it seemed to attract quite a following amongst the sad-bastard train-spotters in Doncaster who turned out in force to stare at it.
CA made some smart changes to his starting lineup - Ballack had earned a go from the outset, Anelka had rightly been dropped to the bench in favour of Kalou after Hull, and most significantly he sacrificed Ricky in favour of Ivanovic in order to have two monsters in central defence for the likes of Kenwyne Jones and Darren Bent. The boss proved there is a “Plan B” when he abandoned his diamond for a setup that put everyone in a more fluid - yet admittedly narrow position with Deco and Kalou in support of Drogs up front.
It was a fair turnout for such a long midweek journey and the travelling fans were in high spirits. It was a case of Hull all over again as we dominated from the outset, pushing Sunderland back, but despite early chances we found ourselves behind to a Darren Bent goal that closely resembled the one scored by the-Irishman-whose-name-we-doth-not-speak on Saturday. The home team had their fair share of thugs out for our visit and Cattermole took a deserved booking on the half hour. Henderson and Leadbitter were two more that pushed their luck, with the referee taking no action. I did have a small amount of respect for Lorik Cana when he went down thanks to a smack in the face after losing a tussle with JT and shrugged it off with a handshake like a proper bloke. Despite high energy levels and no small amount of effort we were still 1-0 down when the half time whistle sounded.
If we controlled Sunderland during the first half we absolutely obliterated them in the second half. I’m confident we could get the better of any team in between 45 and 60 minutes and the Black Cats had no answer to some outstanding play by Chelsea. For one ten minute period they were lucky to string three passes together and got to a point where the only answer they had was to hoof the ball as far as they could away from their own area. Just six minutes into the second half a corner found its way to Ballack who managed to aim it through a tangle of legs into the goal. Less than ten minutes later Drogs was brought down in the area and Lamps stepped up calm as ever to put us into the lead and level Jimmy Greaves as Chelsea’s 5th highest scorer of all time.
Bruce changed his side up but found no answers as we continued to press. Deco hit our third in off of the post on 69 to kill off the game and ensure three points, leading to chants of “We want six” (poke that Arsenal) in the crowd. Sturridge saw his league debut for Chelsea for the last ten minutes and managed to get a shot in, whilst Sheva ran applauding the Chelsea end who were fast outnumbering the departing home fans. Three points bagged, more like this please. Only six hours till we can expect to be home...
Man of the Hour: Deco. Just when you thought we were all set to retire our resident hobbit back to the Shire, along he comes and runs his mini-nuts off with possibly his best performance in a Chelsea shirt. Let’s hope it continues when the weather starts getting colder...
Twat of the Day: The dickheads that got kicked off the train and left in Sunderland for having alcohol on them. If you were going to try and pull it off you could have done it for something that was worth it instead of the girliest little mini bottles of wine that you could get your hands on.
R.I.P - As crap as it was, the train is apparently being retired in favour of a spangly Virgin effort as of the Stoke game - it stank of piss and occasionally vomit, sold crappy sandwiches and warm Coke and rattled like it was going to fall apart if it went over 60, but I for one will miss it, maybe.
Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Branislav the Scouse Slayer, JT, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Essien, Lamps, Kaloooooou, (Malouda, 75) Deco of the Shire, (Sheva, 86) Drogs. (Sturridge, 83)
Sunderland AKA The Hoof-Kings of Europe: 11 panicky, often dirty little buggers who couldn’t string three passes together with ideas above their station who got put in their place. Have a nice season drifting mid table boys.
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