English FA Premiership Chelsea 2 Sunderland 0: Champions do not always play like champions. Statistically Chelsea have made a perfect start to their Premiership title defence, no points dropped in five games nor a goal conceded, yet their win over Sunderland was hardly flawless.
Top were playing bottom and both teams maintained their 100 per cent records, Sunderland departing still pointless since promotion, yet the best aspect of Chelsea's football was not its fluency or its flare but the patience shown by Jose Mourinho's players in waiting for their opponents to make a mistake.
Having spent the first half matching Chelsea for organisation and defensive resilience Sunderland duly obliged early in the second half and suffered another lapse towards the end. "I've said over the previous four games that, if we make mistakes, we get punished," observed their manager Mick McCarthy.
Because of the talent available to Mourinho Chelsea are expected to stay champions. Yet this game gave an early indication of the task which lies ahead, sandwiched as it was between a fortnight of international activity and the onset of the Champions League.
However many millions Chelsea spend on players the physical demands remain the same. Mourinho needed to rest those who had picked up knocks in World Cup qualifiers while keeping others fresh for tomorrow night's match with Anderlecht and hoping there were no new casualties.
In the latter respect he was unlucky, Asier del Horno suffering a thigh strain which will keep the Spanish left-back out tomorrow. "This player went to Spain and trained twice a day," Mourinho reflected. "He had to play against Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro), then he flies back the next day, trained yesterday and plays today. Now he has a muscular rupture."
Clearly Mourinho will need to husband even his considerable resources with some care as the Champions League gets fully under way. In this respect the most encouraging aspect of Chelsea's performance was the ease with which Michael Essien assumed the role of midfield anchor in place of the injured Claude Makelele. Mourinho described the Ghanaian's performance as "fantastic", which seemed an understatement. "Frightening" would surely have been more appropriate - Sunderland managed to knock him over once and it must have been like tackling a young oak.
By coincidence Sunderland's chances of getting something out of this match rested in no small part with the excellence of their French midfield anchor, Christian Bassila, who did much to prevent Chelsea providing a consistent service for Hernan Crespo. Bassila and McCarthy's centre-backs, Gary Breen and Alan Stubbs, kept Chelsea at bay until Frank Lampard struck the Sunderland bar from 25 yards in the 50th minute.
Four minutes later, with Stubbs gone, Geremi drove a stoppable shot under the body of Kelvin Davis after Andy Welsh, who had just come off the bench, had failed to control his goalkeeper's throw and allowed the defender to gain possession.
After 82 minutes Essien drove into Sunderland's half before setting up Damien Duff, who had replaced Eidur Gudjohnsen, for the centre from which Didier Drogba, who had taken over from Crespo, headed Chelsea's second.
The match ended amid a drum roll of thunder but, Essien apart, it had been a muted performance by the champions all the same.
* Guardian Service
