Captain's job: Terry celebrates his opener with Ashley
Cole and debutant Raul Meireles
Steve Bruce could gain consolation from
the injury-time goal that heralded Ji-Dong Won's arrival in the
Premier League.
It made no difference to the destiny of the three
points but at least it erased one of a collection of uncomfortable
statistics involving his Sunderland team.
A little known US college professor Aaron
Levenstein once intoned: 'Statistics are like bikinis. What they
reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital.'
Well, Sunderland's vital statistics hardly make
encouraging reading.
This was their eighth defeat in the last nine
league matches at the Stadium Of Light, including four in
succession.
This was Chelsea's seventh successive win on
Wearside.
At least South Korean Ji maintaining a scoring
run which included two for his country during the week prevented
four on the trot without a Sunderland goal.
It also sparked a hectic final three minutes
which, it must be said, disturbed Chelsea's composure for the first
time in the match.
But to draw optimism from such a token flurry
would be to paper over undoubted cracks. And yet for all of
Chelsea's territorial command, they still should have been a goal
down in the 12th minute when Nicklas Bendtner wasted a great
opportunity to endear himself to his new band of
followers.
Bendtner has undoubted assets which will aid
Sunderland in his season's loan from Arsenal, but his big weakness
is his consistent failure to profit from his ability not only to
take up good positions but also to out-jump even the most
formidable central defensive opponent.
Cue the inswinging free-kick from Seb Larsson
which Bendtner got on the end of with such effect that he only had
Petr Cech to beat.
The goalkeeper, back in action after a knee
ligament injury, was mightily relieved when the striker guided the
ball wide of his right-hand post.
'Nick had a great chance and you have to take
chances like that against Chelsea,' said Bruce.
That was the sum total of Cech's anxiety for all
but the last minute of the first half, when he reacted quickly to
deal with a shot on the turn from Stephane Sessegnon.
The time in between was a reflection of the
enormous chasm which stretches between the Steve Bruce could gain
consolation from the injury-time goal that yesterday heralded
Ji-Dong Won's arrival in the Premier League.
The time in between was a reflection of the
enormous chasm which stretches between the aspirations of the two
sides - Chelsea's passing and movement creating pressure and
Sunderland trying vainly to cope but looking bereft of ideas and
inspiration.
A Chelsea goal seemed inevitable. It came in the
17th minute when Lee Cattermole, never the shrinking violet, dived
in on Nicolas Anelka and brought him down.
Anelka made the most of it but there was no doubt
about the contact.
Juan Mata cracked the 25-yard free-kick against a
post but Chelsea's reactions to the rebound were far more positive
and, after John Terry's first cross was blocked, when the ball came
back to him he squeezed it in from an acute angle, with Phil
Bardsley succeeding only in making sure it went over the
line.
Six minutes after half-time Daniel Sturridge made
it two with a goal of superb individual talent.
First, he worried Wes Brown out of a long ball
from Ramires and then, with Simon Mignolet also trying to crowd
him, the striker's kind of side-footed backheel rolled into an
empty net.
Bruce tried all manner of permutations and
players without ever threatening until the late burst sparked by
Ji's low right-footer after Bendtner had helped on a Larsson
pass.
Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas said: 'It went
very well for us in terms of what you want to achieve.'
He is clearly aware of the demands of owner Roman
Abramovich as far as a big prize is concerned and added: 'I just
have to focus on what the owner has told me. One of his obsessions
is to play well and that's what we try to do.
'We have only two days to rest before the
Leverkusen game in the Champions League, with Bayer having one day
extra to rest. And we have to focus on getting the three points
before going on to Valencia.'
Bruce said: 'It was very difficult against a very
good Chelsea team. They had terrific possession of the ball and we
used up a lot of energy trying to get it back.
'The pity was we didn't make the most of what we
had.'
Consolation: Ji Dong-Won celebrates his first goals for
Sunderland