Not sure what’s a stronger word than cacophony, but that’s what greeted the teams as they walked out onto the pitch at the Stadium of Light. Glorious noise, glorious sunshine, and some glorious football — well, glorious from the home side at least.
It was far from glorious from the Blues, and the constant attack-v-defense exercise would eventually result in a conceded goal: a long ball from the goalkeeper catching out the left side of our defense (2-v-1), and Trey Hume producing a rather outstanding first-time finish to beat Robert Sánchez on 25 minutes.
A tame effort from Cole Palmer was all Chelsea had to show up to that point; and though we’d start to come forward a bit more after the goal, João Pedro’s header was the only time we threatened Robin Roefs’ goal. JP nodded wide unfortunately and we’d head into half time a goal down.
Coming back against the league’s fourth best defense was always going to take a bit effort … and to no one’s surprise given the way this season has gone, we’d produce very little in the way of any effort in the second half.
Sánchez made a great save to keep the deficit at one just moments after the restart, but not even he could prevent a ridiculous own goal from Malo Gusto to double Sunderland’s lead five minutes into the period.
And that goal loomed even larger five minutes later, when Palmer got a helping hand from Roefs, who pushed a long-range effort into the net rather than around it.
That bit of luck galvanized Chelsea a little bit, but not nearly enough. And then Wesley Fofana got himself sent off for his latest bit of lazy defending — the second yellow may have been a bit harsh, especially with Levi Colwill also right there and doing just as much shirt-pulling, but why even put yourself in that situation when you’re the only player on a booking.
As we headed into the final 20 minutes, results elsewhere meant that we would’ve needed just a goal (and a draw) to get into Europa League. Alas, those hopes would die a slow and extended death, as we endured nearly a quarter hour of stoppage time at the end. We never looked like scoring.
Thankfully, the match and this terrible season would eventually end.
