Sunderland 0 Chelsea 0
Sunderland fans felt Diego Costa was lucky to still be on field after an incident with John O'Shea. José Mourinho wore the contemplative frown of a man minded to cancel Christmas but it could have been much worse for Chelsea’s manager.
After all had Adam Johnson not missed a simple late chance for Sunderland, his side would have lost their unbeaten Premier League record. Similarly, standing at another angle, Kevin Friend might well have sent Diego Costa off after a tangle with Wes Brown and, on another day, John Terry’s increasingly bristling aggression could have got him into trouble.
Instead all that Chelsea sacrificed was their record of scoring in every Premier League game this season and the chance to have gone nine points – rather than a mere seven – clear at the top of the table.
Mourinho cancelled Chelsea’s Christmas party in the wake of his side’s League Cup quarter-final defeat here a year ago and, even worse for the Portuguese, Sunderland won at Stamford Bridge in the league last April.
Initially the chances of lightning striking thrice for Gus Poyet’s players seemed slim. Indeed they appeared to recede every time Willian assumed possession. One of Mourinho’s brighter first-half sparks, Willian worried Sunderland from a flexible right-sided attacking role and could count himself a little unlucky to see a shot hit a post.
He and his team-mates spent much of that half passing the ball around in Sunderland’s half, forcing Poyet’s team alarmingly deep. When Sunderland did win the ball they tended to lose it far too quickly and one of these self-destructive cameos very nearly prompted a counter-attacking goal for Costa.
Liberated by Cesc Fàbregas’s defence bisecting pass from deep, Costa was advancing with menace only to be denied by John O’Shea’s excellent, immaculately timed, sliding tackle.
It was the sort of incisive challenge on which matches can turn and it appeared to galvanise Sunderland. Sure enough in the aftermath of Santiago Vergini’s clever deception of César Azpilicueta, Jack Rowell tested Thibaut Courtois from 30 yards. It was a routine save but at least hinted at the promise of a proper contest ahead.
Poyet could have won prizes for moaning at match officials during his days as a Chelsea player but it was his assistant Mauricio Taricco who incurred the wrath of the referee, Kevin Friend. Taricco was ordered down the tunnel, apparently after complaining, somewhat vehemently, about a series of Friend’s decisions to Lee Mason, the fourth official.
Perhaps their debate had centred on Adam Johnson, who looked to go down rather easily on a couple of occasions before being summarily told to get up by an unsympathetic Friend.
More encouragingly for Poyet, Connor Wickham’s deployment wide on the left was giving Bransilav Ivanovic an odd uncomfortable moment and when Wickham stole in front of the right-back, his resultant cross forced Courtois into an uncharacteristically awkward punch. Briefly, Chelsea appeared in defensive disarray but Johnson could not control the loose ball and a rare home opportunity vanished.
Mourinho would probably have been more concerned about the erosion of Chelsea’s initial attacking menace; something epitomised by a frustrated Costa kicking out at O’Shea as half-time beckoned and being a little lucky to escape a yellow card.
Across in the home dressing-room Poyet must have rued the instant when Lee Cattermole’s cross was deflected into the path of Vergini, who proceeded to lift the ball over Courtois but also fractionally over the bar.
Poyet knows openings like that do not come along very often against Chelsea these days but at least his players were succeeding in rattling them.
And no one more so than Costa. As if taking an growing dislike to O’Shea was not sufficient the visiting striker could arguably count himself fortunate not to be sent off after appearing to accidentally on purpose catch Brown in the mouth with a flailing arm as the pair challenged for a header. To considerable local chagrin, Costa was merely shown a yellow card – and, under the totting up rule, will consequently be suspended for Chelsea’s midweek game against Tottenham.
If the majority of the 45,232 inside the Stadium of Light were convinced he should now be starting a three-match ban after seeing red, apologists argued it was unintentional. The riposte to that theory though is that Brown found himself felled by Costa’s non-leading arm.
With Pantilimon making light of Nemanja Matic’s long-range shot, the home side then cruised towards keeping Chelsea blank.
