Chelsea

Soapbox: far too comfortable for Chelsea

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As the club adopts the familiar look of one in turmoil, Pete Sixsmith admits to deep concerns in his analysis of the many shortcomings all too visible in Saturday’s defeat by Chelsea. Rather a lot, he suggests, now depends on the team’s – and especially Steve Bruce’s – immediate response …

There have been a few dispiriting days for a Sunderland supporter over the past 48 years, and Saturday was up there with the big ones.

It may be wise to keep off the Gyan move for a couple of days and see what emerges from both sides (read this link to catch up), but it was a major disappointment so see a striker go after the deadline, leaving us bereft of even a semi-regular goalscorer.

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Bruce’s Banter: lauding Chelsea, sticking together, seeing it through

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Steve Bruce‘s day got off to a bad start with the announcement that he had lost a third top striker, this time Asamoah Gyan, off on loan to the Al-Ain, second city in the Abu Dhabi emirate of the UAE. Then we faced Chelsea. And, to no great surprise, lost, much more soundly beaten than the 2-1 scoreline suggests. This was his post-match e-mail …

Dear Colin,

Chelsea were excellent today and they played the ball fantastically well – that’s why they play at the level they do.

They frustrated us with the possession they had, however, we did have some good chances, but on the day we have to admit that Chelsea were that bit better than us.

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Salut!’s week: a Chelsea build-up and a Newcastle putdown

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Another of those retrospective looks, for the reader in a hurry, at what has been served up in recent days …

Breaks for internationals act a little like “slow down” signals for Salut! Sunderland.

Occasional contributors do not think of tossing anything our way. M Salut was away in Rome in any case, for a long weekend devoid of football unless you count a look round the Colisseum, a model – in terms of the building rather than original purpose – for the stadiums of today.

And for once, not even Pete Sixsmith could be trusted to return from some non-league backwater with flashes of entertaining prose. It remains to be seen whether he chooses to write about his own trip, a few days in Antwerp.

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Chelsea and the new order: ‘above Liverpool, beneath Man Utd & City’

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Denise: 'SAFC will finish just inside top 10'

Denise Hone*, ChelseaD from The Chelsea Blog, has been here before, but without the real name. She previewed our great win at Stamford Bridge last season and – despite that – agreed to have another go at the Salut! Sunderland questions ahead of Saturday’s return to proper, post-international football. Denise does her “biggest pessimist” credentials no harm as she offers interesting responses on a range of issues from changing places at the top of the Premier to her Chelsea loves and hates, cheating and the weather up north …

Salut! Sunderland: You obviously saw it coming, last season’s 3-0 win for us at your place? Explain it all the same!

I saw defeat coming, maybe not 3-0 to you but it was on the cards. We’d started the season so well after a rubbish pre-season but as every game went on cracks started to appear and the wins were less convincing. It was always a matter of time before the wheels came off – and when they did, it was no Formula One pit stop.

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Chelsea came calling before Arsenal’s credit downgrade

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The Chelsea Blog repeated last season’s exercise and popped a few questions our way about 2011-2012.

No great original thought appears in the replies, but I place them on record so that Salut! Sunderland readers can:

* Tell me I’m spot on

* Offer a sharper assessment

* Come back later to tell me to say how wrong I was

I’d also add that my answers would be slightly different had the questions been posed today and not a couple of weeks ago.

News from the Emirates, for example, would have made me wonder about Arsenal’s chances of making the top four. I hate to say it but fear our opponents for tomorrow’s opening game will sneak in and grab the Gunners’ slot … that is a shame because M Salut is a fully paid-up admirer of M Wenger and would be sad to see his club slip down the pecking order.

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Bravo Bardo – a winner four times over

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The boot goes in next week when our end-of-term, end-of-season reports start running. Well, that may be putting it harshly since at least one of the contributors we have lined up will be making a strong case for the defence.

But for now, let us hail another man who has been making a compelling case for the defence all season. Step forward Phil Bardsley, winner of the official Player of the Season poll run by the club to add to the similar honour he collected in the SAFC Supporters’ Association awards. And he ends the season a winner on four counts, if you include the internal players’ vote and his debut as a McInternational.

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Player of the season: Phil Bardsley or Phil Bardsley?

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Across at the official club site, it’s already that time of year.

Who, safc.com wants to know, do fans make their player of the season and young player of the season, and what were the goal, save and team performance of the season?

Voting closes on May 11 – which I hope does not mean no one will be trying to pull off the goal, save or team display of the season on May 14 against Wolves or at West ham on May 22 – and each vote is entered into a prize draw with a pair of tickets to the May 18 awards dinner at the Stadium of Light as the prize.

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Unwise to talk about backing the other side? You bet …

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Our shadowy Birflatt Boy is quick to respond to the rotten question of whether it is ever Ok to bet on your team losing …

M Salut’s article on betting against your team – click here – prompted Birflatt to think of other dilemmas that anyone could potentially face by doing nothing worse than supporting their team.

Now Birflatt wouldn’t condone anyone betting against Sunderland in any circumstances other than those where the wager is intended to cover the costs of an away trip down to London, for example, and where the bitter taste of defeat is accentuated by the trip costing half a week’s wages.

A few seasons back when Peter Crouch was playing for Liverpool, they were drawn to play Chelsea in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

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Chelsea Soapbox: beaten but not humbled by Blues

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In a model of even-handed match reporting, Pete Sixsmith praises what Sunderland did well, puts aside disappointment that we could not quite rise to the occasion and do better and salutes a powerful display by the Champions in general – one José Bosingwa da Silva excluded – and one man, Nicolas Anelka, in particular …

As games go, it was a good one. There was plenty of exciting and attacking football, some poor defending, controversial refereeing decisions and a sublime performance from one player. The pity was that we lost it.

These are the games where we measure our progress. Too many times in the past, we have come up against one of the very good sides at the top of the League and we have been rolled over. So, on that criterion, we have advanced. We were beaten, but Chelsea did not swamp us.

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