Chelsea 7 Sunderland 2

Jan 17 2010 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

IN the end, there was only one word for it: carnage!

Sunderland were comprehensively dismantled at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea ran riot and inflicted the Black Cats’ heaviest defeat since they were routed 7-1 at Everton in November 2007.

And this was only marginally better than that humiliation at Goodison Park.

I say marginally better because Sunderland at least managed two goals at the Bridge, and the standard of opposition was undeniably higher.

But Sunderland were still abysmal.

The Wearsiders’ kamikaze defending saw Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard fire Chelsea into a 4-0 half-time lead.

Game well and truly over.

Michael Ballack made it five at the start of the second half, before sub Bolo Zenden pulled a goal back against one of his old clubs.

But Anelka and Lampard added to Sunderland’s misery, while Darren Bent kept up his record of scoring in every game against the Premier League’s Big Four this season in injury time when he notched his 14th goal of the season.

Sunderland were without a host of their first-teamers – Craig Gordon, Anton Ferdinand, Nyron Nosworthy, Kieran Richardson, Andy Reid and Lee Cattermole are all injured, while Michael Turner was suspended.