Chelsea 0 Sunderland 0
Jose Mourinho was philosophical about his team’s performance after Chelsea laboured to a draw against Sunderland.
It was a game that failed to ignite but there were still chances for both teams to win the game. Willian hit the post for Chelsea while Santiago Vergini also hit the woodwork for Sunderland.
It is the first time Chelsea have failed to score in the Premier League all season but Mourinho put it down to Sunderland defending well, rather than his teams own shortcomings.
“We were a bit tired towards the end and we left a bit of space. But I’ve got nothing negative to say about my team,” said Mourinho.
“Only one team tried to win from the beginning, the other team didn’t. They defended a lot and they defended well. Defending a lot and well is not a crime. It is a strategy and it was successful for them.”
The early parts of the game were dominated by the Blues and Willian nearly opened the scoring in 16th minute. He struck a fierce shot from outside the box which clipped the post.
Chelsea continued to pressurise Sunderland but Vergini had a chance against the run of play. Lee Cattermole’s deflected cross reached the Argentine in the penalty box, but his shot was marginally too high and clipped the top of the crossbar.
The second half was mainly incident free but Diego Costa was lucky not to see a red card after his arm caught Wes Brown in the face when he was challenging for the ball in the air.
On the incident Mourinho said: “I didn’t see it. But the referee was close and he had a very good performance throughout. If I see the incident on television I might have a better opinion.”
