Chelsea 7 Sunderland 2

Jan 17 2010 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

That meant he had to rely on a central midfield partnership of Jordan Henderson and David Meyler – combined age just 38 – but Bruce was in no mood for excuses.

That injury list meant he was able to make just one change to the side that beat Barrow in the FA Cup a fortnight ago, with Kenwyne Jones returning from a hamstring problem to take the place of Fraizer Campbell up front.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti made four changes to the side that won against Watford in the cup, with Petr Cech replacing Henrique Hilario in goal, Ricardo Carvalho taking over from Alex in central defence, Ballack returning in place of Yury Zhrikov in midfield and Anelka coming in for Daniel Sturridge up front.

The game started at a frantic pace with both sides creating chances inside the first three minutes.

Chelsea were on the attack after less than 90 seconds, hitting Sunderland on the counter after a Black Cats free-kick was cleared. The ball was headed into the path of Joe Cole and he was through on goal but scuffed his shot, which allowed the advancing Marton Fulop to make the save.

A minute later it was Sunderland’s turn to go on the offensive with David Meyler slipping the ball into the right-hand channel for Jones, who controlled under pressure from Juliano Belletti but his low shot was saved by Cech.

Chelsea should have gone in front in the fourth minute when Joe Cole crossed from the right and Ashley Cole found himself completely unmarked at the far post. Cole tried to place his header back across goal and into the right side of the net, but got his angles wrong and the ball went a couple of yards wide of the post.

But it was only a temporary reprieve for Sunderland as Chelsea went in front in the eighth minute. Ballack played the ball through for Anelka and Lorik Cana was left rooted to the spot with his arm in the air trying to play offside, but Anelka was on and he rounded Fulop before sidefooting home despite Paulo Da Silva’s efforts to slide in and keep the shot out.

Darren Bent hit a shot from the edge of the box straight at Cech in the 14th minute, but four minutes later Chelsea doubled their lead.

Florent Malouda breezed past George McCartney all too easily in midfield, no one tried to close him down on the edge of the box and he fired low across Fulop and into the bottom left-hand corner.