AS STEVE BRUCE, Sunderland's rueful manager, forlornly admitted: "You can't come to Chelsea without eight first-team players and hope to avoid disaster." Though Sunderland might be said, with some irony, to have had the last word, or at least the last goal, knocked home almost at the climax of stoppage time by Darren Bent, overall they looked sadly invertebrate.
Bruce admitted that every time Chelsea attacked, they seemed likely to score. As Chelsea's Italian manager, Carlo Ancelotti, emphasised - it was done without the team's four African players, including Didier Drogba and the motor of the midfield, Michael Essien, both of whom are in Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Many years ago, when asked why he did not recruit talent from below the Sahara, Ken Bates, then owner of Chelsea, said it was because African players were so frequently absent at international tournaments. So they were again, in a competition which takes place every two years rather than four - the habit of the World Cup and the European Championship. But yesterday you couldn't see the difference.
Drogba, under the aegis of Ancelotti, has at long last formed a productive partnership with Nicolas Anelka. Yesterday, in his absence, Anelka played alone up front and was simply irrepressible. He scored a couple of goals and could have had several more, notably after four minutes of the second half when a ferocious right-footer from distance was pushed gallantly on to the woodwork by Marton Fulop, Sunderland's besieged but defiant goalkeeper.
It was Anelka after eight minutes of the first half, set up by Juliano Belletti and Michael Ballack, who unlocked the floodgates, coolly dribbling wide of Fulop and guiding the ball into the open net. Anelka's other goal came when Fulop, rushing out to oppose the second-half substitute Yury Zhirkov, could only push the ball to Anelka, who found the unguarded goal. In fairness to Fulop, he might have been distracted by the attempt of Daryl Murphy to intercept the ball.
Advertisement
"I think, maybe, the best performance of the season," said Ancelotti. "We did very well. Started very well in the first minute. I'm very happy. It was important for us because we were without the African players. We could have had some problems, but the others played very well." Not surprisingly, he praised Anelka: "Nicolas did very well today. He is a fantastic striker, the top striker."
Fantastic, indeed, was the 17th-minute goal by the French attacker Florent Malouda, a glorious solo effort not from the left wing - his familiar habitat - but from a central position, in which he left Sunderland's defence bemused and finished by scoring with his right foot, rather than his more familiar left The ears of Ashley Cole were burning, too. Cole, who had to come off at the break with an ankle injury, inflicted consistent damage down Sunderland's right flank and scored a goal which his manager described as a "fantastic moment".
That goal, Chelsea's third, came midway through the first half when Ashley Cole, seemingly with little hope of making his way through a packed defence, skilfully twisted his way from the left past stopper Lorik Cana - playing out of position in midfield - and went on to beat the unfortunate Fulop. Then, it was a low cross on 34 minutes by Ashley Cole which gave Frank Lampard such an easy goal. Where, you wondered at that moment, was Sunderland's central defence?
Ancelotti had praise, too, for Joe Cole, but for those of us who have watched this player since the days when he inspired West Ham United's youth team, this wasn't quite the Cole we have long admired.
This may have had something to do with his slightly indeterminate position, notionally on the right but frequently moving into the middle of midfield where, despite all his England caps on the flanks, he is surely at his best and most creative. Sometimes he tended to give the ball away too easily but there were sufficient clever touches and neat passes to make one hope that he will be given more time in the middle, where England still lack a genuine playmaker.
Advertisement
He could, in fact, have put Chelsea ahead in only the second minute when Malouda set him up but Cole's shot was blocked point-blank by Fulop. Not that Chelsea's own goalkeeper, Petr Cech, so often, perhaps unfairly, the butt of criticism this season, was given a day off. In the midst of this avalanche of Chelsea goals, Bolo Zenden, the much-travelled Dutch midfielder, got one back for Sunderland 11 minutes into the second half. Earlier, Cech had to come to Chelsea's rescue when an untypical mistake by John Terry, who was rested for the second half, put the home goal in danger, but Cech was quickly off his line to block. Ballack, in the 52nd minute, and Lampard, in the last, completed the scoring.
"We had our backsides well and truly kicked. We couldn't get near them today, it was a procession, and we can only hope that we respond," said Bruce. He had reason to lament his many absentees, three of whom were established centre-backs, but having said and acknowledged this, one had to record that the Sunderland team showed little commitment and resilience. Butchered to make a Chelsea holiday, you might say, but Chelsea for their part might ask, who needs the Africans?
Star man: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) Yellow card: Sunderland: Bardsley
Referee: C Foy Attendance: 41,776
CHELSEA: Cech 7, Ivanovic 7, Carvalho 7, Terry 7 (Alex h-t, 7), A Cole 9 (Zhirkov h-t, 7), J Cole 6, Ballack 7, Lampard 7, Belletti 7, Malouda 7, Anelka 9
SUNDERLAND: Fulop 7, Bardsley 5, Da Silva 5, Cana 5, McCartney 5, Malbranque 6 (Zenden h-t, 6), Henderson 5, Meyler 5, Murphy 6 (Campbell 71min, 5), Bent 6, Jones 5
Terry snubbed Bruce
Steve Bruce revealed last week that, while manager at Huddersfield in 1999, he had a £750,000 bid for John Terry accepted by Chelsea - only for Terry to turn down the move. How the Sunderland boss must have wished for the England captain in his side at Stamford Bridge yesterday, rather than him marshalling Chelsea's defence and even helping to create the goal glut at the other end before he was replaced at half-time job done.
'I went to do my coaching badges at Nottingham Forest,' Bruce said. 'It was a miserable afternoon and I saw John in his short sleeves rolling his shirt up - he was on loan up there. I thought, 'Christ, he'll do for me. I like him'