Chelsea starlet Daniel Sturridge showed
Fernando Torres exactly how to do it with an outrageous strike in a 2-1 win
over Sunderland.
With the £50 million man sitting on the
bench, Sturridge produced an outrageous back-heeled finish to wrap up a
comfortable victory at the Stadium of Light.
Skipper John Terry had opened the
scoring with an 18th-minute shot after Juan Mata's free-kick had hit the
woodwork, but it was left to the former Manchester City man to complete the job
in style six minutes after the break with substitute Ji Dong-won's injury-time strike
counting for little.
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| Sturridge scores an amazing goal by back heal |
The win extended the Blues' uneaten
start to the season and left Sunderland still looking for their first victory
and having scored only two goals in five games.
That statistic will not have been lost
on the club's fans as news of Asamoah Gyan's loan move to United Arab Emirates
club Al-Ain emerged shortly before kick-off, although they will have been
buoyed by Nicklas Bendtner's performance on his debut in front of a crowd of
36,699.
All the talk in the hours immediately
prior to the game was about strikers and in particular, two who were not
involved this afternoon.
Gyan's departure will no doubt have been
a topic of conversation between Steve Bruce, Niall Quinn and Ellis Short as
manager, chairman and owner met on the pitch before kick-off, and when the
team-sheet arrived, Torres, who had scored just once in his previous 21
appearances for Chelsea, was named only among the substitutes.
The upshot was that Bendtner made his
first appearance for the Black Cats playing as a lone striker and not alongside
the Ghana international, while Juan Mata, Nicolas Anelka and Sturridge lined up
in attack for the visitors, for whom Raul Meireles made his debut.
Sunderland might have got off to the
perfect start with just 12 minutes gone when Bendtner got his header to a
Sebastian Larsson free-kick, but glanced the ball agonisingly wide with keeper
Petr Cech rooted to the spot.
However, that proved a rare excursion
into enemy territory until a late flurry as Chelsea dominated possession and
created a series of chances.
Mata was a livewire as he and full-back
Ashley Cole exploited space down the left with Meireles and Frank Lampard
prompting from the middle.
The opening goal arrived with 18 minutes
gone, although it did so in slightly controversial circumstances with Lee
Cattermole unhappy with Anelka's reaction to his challenge 20 yards out.
Mata curled the free-kick over the wall
and saw it come back off the post with keeper Simon Mignolet beaten.
But the Black Cats failed to make the
most of their escape and when the ball was eventually recycled to Terry beyond
the far post, he fired in a shot which was blocked, but Phil Bardsley could
only help his follow-up into the roof of the net.
Anelka and Ramires both went close as
the Londoners eased into top gear, and it took good blocks from Mignolet and
Wes Brown to deny the Frenchman.
Bardsley was fortunate to escape without
punishment after he appeared to stamp on Mata as the clock ran down and may yet
have to face the repercussions, although his side finished the half in positive
fashion.
Stephane Sessegnon forced Cech to beat
away a well-struck shot at his near post and Larsson mistimed a header from
Kieran Richardson's injury-time cross to at least suggest the contest was not
over.
Craig Gardner headed tamely at Cech from
another Richardson cross as Sunderland resumed in determined fashion, but the
game was effectively over within six minutes as Chelsea hit back.
Anelka had already fired wide after
running away from Titus Bramble and Cattermole was relieved to see a volleyed
clearance from Cole's cross fly over his own crossbar when the visitors doubled
their lead.
Meireles' ball over the top allowed
Sturridge to run away from Brown and as Mignolet came to meet him, he
audaciously back-heeled his shot past him and into the bottom corner with the
former Manchester United defender's efforts to keep it out coming to nothing.
Sunderland might have reduced the deficit
with 25 minutes to play when Branislav Ivanovic made a mess of clearing Jack
Colback's left-wing cross and the ball fell to Bendtner, but Terry was on hand
to block his shot at source.
Anelka forced a 73rd-minute save from
Mignolet as the visitors eased into cruise control, and although Ji side-footed
home at the death to give the home side some reward for their efforts, the
points were safe.
