The tactics that helped Chelsea embarrass Sunderland

Chelsea and Liverpool were both hugely impressive midweek, convincingly beating Sunderland and Stoke respectively. Rather amusingly, a Ronaldo-less Man Utd stumbled to a one nil loss to mighty Burnley. Ahead of Sunday’s game at Fulham, I’m taking a more in-depth look at how the Sunderland game really was won, what players were most influential and briefly comparing the performance to those of Chelsea’s closest rivals.

Much has been made – and rightfully so for a one off performance – of the high standard of Chelsea’s passing game on Tuesday. In the second half especially the football was pleasing on the eye, the movement was great and the middle three of Ballack, Deco and Lampard appeared to be having a field day. 

The stats back that impression up, with 495 successful passes being made and an 86% passing success rate. But whilst it was the more forward thinking of Chelsea’s central midfield that caught the eye, it perhaps isn’t surprising that it was the deeper lying Essien that was Chelsea’s engine room. The Ghanaian attempted 82 passes over the 90 minutes and misplaced only three of them – a staggering 96% success rate – and he was rock on which Chelsea’s rapid use of the ball in the right areas of the pitch was built. Essien rarely made forays into the final third but covered pretty much every other blade of grass. Unsurprisingly, aside from Bosingwa he was also the player most likely to break up Sunderland attacks, making 5 successful tackles.

As it turns out, the positions of the players in front of Essien – and the ground they were asked to cover – weren’t quite as we had anticipated before kick-off. Chelsea played in what looked like a 4-3-2-1 formation, with Ballack and Lampard playing slightly ahead of Essien and Kalou and Deco slotting in behind Drogba. It was a highly fluid formation, with regular interchanging of positions contributing to Sunderland’s struggle to pick up the runs of Deco and Lampard in particular, who both covered more square yardage than Ballack and Kalou who were more likely to stick to the inside right channel. 

It wasn’t until Malouda was introduced on 75 minutes however that any real width (save Bosingwa occasionally getting down the right) was brought into Chelsea’s play – the Frenchman completed only 8 passes but almost all of them were made within 5 yards of the touchline. It didn’t matter however – Chelsea’s neat passing in midfield was more than a match for Sunderland’s rearguard.

As I mentioned in the match report, the one negative to come from the game was perhaps the number of chances that were spurned by slightly off-key finishing. Of Chelsea’s 26 shots, only five were on target – in their game against Stoke, Liverpool managed to steer nine out of twenty goal-wards. Had Drogba had his shooting boots on, the score could have been embarrassing (as opposed to just the balance of play).

They’re only stats, but Chelsea’s stand up pretty well against those of recent Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal performances. Liverpool may have played very well to smash four past Stoke without reply, but they completed 50 less passes that the Blues. United’s pass completion rate was abysmal and, without Ronaldo, their usual source of countless free-kicks dried up (Stoke only gave away three). Most surprisingly, Arsenal may have scored six against Everton, but in that game they completed 30% less passes than Chelsea did against Sunderland. So much for the best passing football in the league, eh?

Formation-wise, maybe Ancelotti just plans to use the Christmas tree away from home, or perhaps he’s still experimenting to find the best formation. Either way, it’s encouraging to see the team be able to adapt to different tactics and different opponents. Fulham should present a very different threat on Sunday and will be harder to break down than Sunderland however, so – whatever formation Ancelotti chooses, Chelsea will need to pick up where they left off last Tuesday.

Key player stats and facts:

Player	Passes completed	Pass success rate (%)	Successful tackles
Lampard	43	78	3
Ballack	49	90	3
Essien	79	96	5
Deco	40	77	4
Terry	67	99	2
Bosingwa	61	84	7

Comments

[Jackie White]

When did Arsenal put 6 past Sunderland?

I would hold your judgement on Chelsea until they play a top 4 team. There is no doubt Chelsea were streets ahead of Sunderland and the gap from the top 4 was ever more apparent. But then again you're comparing a well established, very expensive team and squad against new faces trying to blend.

Good luck for your season but I can guarantee not one sunderland fan or player felt embarrassed on Tuesday night.

[Russell Saunders]

Bit of a typo there! Obviously meant Everton. Will change it.

THanks for your comment Jackie. You're right on holding judgement - in my previous posts I've been criticised for being too pessimistic. We're two games into the season, far too early to really judge what's going to happen for the next 36.

I was quite flattering about Sunderland in my match preview and, bearing in mind that your boys put a pretty good performance on for the first 45 on Tues, 'embarass' is probably a little harsh. Good luck for the rest of the season mate.

[Damian Peel]

i want to know how you figure out that chelsea embarrassed sunderland they won 3-1 right they are a top four side one of the best in europe and have a squad full of internationals who earn about 100,000 a week each. if anything chelsea embarrassed them selves with the 3-1 they went behind and then had a number of really bad attempts i am a season ticket holder at the stadium of light and i swear one of michael essiens shots went so wide it nearly hit me when it went out for a throw in and i sit on the corner at the stadium. A squad which is worth all of the money that your lot are they should have won like 6-1 not 3-1 to even nearly embarrass us

[Russell Saunders]

Who knew one word could be offensive?! In that case - I apologise to all the sunderland fans out there.

As I said in my last comment, yes, perhaps 'embarass' was a little strong. Sunderland weren't a bad side at all and, as I said in my post, Chelsea's finishing was very profligate.

I would say that Bruce was gushing to the extreme about Chelsea and said many times Sunderland weren't up to it. Yes, that isn't surprising bearing in mind how much the Chelsea team cost, but it was pretty effusive praise. Then again, it didn't necessarily suggest embarassment, either.

One point though - I won't take criticism on Essien. His shooting is often not up to much but tbh that's not really what he's in the team for.

[BlueCelery]

I agree "embarrassed" is perhaps a bit harsh for this match, however more than appropriate for the 5-0 thrashing they got last term.

Credit to them for fighting till the end but to be fair they were pinned back in their own half throughout the match and at home no less.

Would love to see them nick points off other top four teams as I can see Bruce only improving them with time.

[Damian Peel]

i was only using essien as an example as his shot was particularly bad but i have to say one of drogbas efforts was much worse