A Gallas disregard for bad old ways

Chelsea 3 Sunderland

Boring, boring Chelsea? Well, not quite, but the flamboyance of the Nineties has been replaced by the pragmatism of the Noughties. The scoreline will suggest otherwise, but this was a victory built on resolute defending rather than exuberant attacking. Indeed, it tells you everything that Chelsea's two centre-backs scored the first two goals.

Not that Claudio Ranieri cares much, as Chelsea move up to third in the table. "I know that we can always score a goal," the Italian manager said when asked whether his team could now push for the title. "The important thing for us is that we do not concede. You build good teams from the back."

Howard Wilkinson is only too aware of that, but not even his five-man defence could stop Sunderland dropping to third from bottom. "I was satisfied with the performance, but disappointed with the League position," he said. "It's a bitter pill to swallow, because I actually felt we took more out of this defeat than we did from the [goalless] draw with Liverpool."

Ranieri has taken a while to impose his methods, but the eccentric Italian has now built a system of play and, more significantly, a squad of players who look good enough to compete for the top places. It tells you everything about the strength in depth at Stamford Bridge that Emmanuel Petit and John Terry started on the bench yesterday.

Chelsea wasted no time in turning the screw and, with the evergreen Gianfranco Zola performing individual moments of magic down the flanks, you sensed an early goal was on the cards. That it never came owes more to the battling, rather than footballing, qualities of the visitors. Sunderland may be more resolute these days, under the watchful eyes of Wilkinson and Steve Cotterill, but they still lack the basic skills. Time and again, their attempts at breaking out of defence fell flat, as their first pass failed to find the intended target.

Chelsea kept pressing and, after 25 minutes, produced the move of the half. Graeme Le Saux gathered possession on the left flank and, following a neat exchange of passes with Zola, chipped a delightful ball towards Hasselbaink, who was lurking in the area. The Dutchman's header was on target, but too close to Jürgen Macho. Mario Melchiot then saw his back-post header saved as well, after leaping higher than everyone to meet Jesper Gronkjaer's cross. Try as they might, Chelsea could not find a way through. As is so often the case in these situations, the attacking team were almost caught on the break, but Kevin Phillips' snap-shot on the turn could not beat Carlo Cudicini.

Ranieri had not done his old trick of making mass changes during the interval for some time, but though Chelsea were not poor in the opening period they lacked the necessary mettle in the midfield, which explains the withdrawal of both Jody Morris and De Lucas. Petit's introduction immediately gave Chelsea the upper hand, and it was his persistence on 53 minutes which nearly led to the opener. Having won back the ball, he fed Gronkjaer on the right wing. The Dane then sent in a deep cross which Zola side-volleyed towards goal. Only Macho's agility denied the home team.

Five minutes later, Chelsea had the breakthrough they deserved. Once again the ball came in from the right wing, only this time it was delivered by Le Saux. And again, there was a Chelsea player loitering at the far post to side-foot at goal, except that William Gallas' effort went one better than Zola's when it found the top left corner of Sunderland's goal. No wonder the French centre-back is keeping Terry out of the team.

With 25 minutes left, the other half-time substitute, Eidur Gudjohnsen, might have added a second, but his measured curler from the left-hand edge of the D bounced just wide. Wilkinson threw caution to the wind, replacing defender Joachim Bjorklund for the pacy striker David Bellion, but there was no breaking Chelsea's grip. In fact, the home side nearly doubled their advantage when Macho spilled Lampard's shot, only to watch in horror as Desailly looked odds-on to score from no more than two yards. Phil Babb saved his keeper's blushes, though, with a wonderful last-gasp intervention.

Having seen more orthodox tactics fail, Sunderland appeared to resort to more unusual means to put off their opponents. Kevin Kilbane's shorts lost their elastic, but no one in blue lost their focus, as Desailly made safe the win, half-volleying Le Saux's 83rd-minute corner into the roof of the net. Sunderland's resistance was broken and all that remained was for Hasselbaink to complete the scoring with a trademark left-foot shot two minutes from time.

Chelsea 3 Sunderland 0
Gallas 58, Desailly 84, Hasselbaink 89

Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 38,946