Sunderland 1 v Chelsea 3

Last updated : 08 December 2012 By Paul Lagan

Chelsea ended their league win drought by securing their first three-pointer since the end of October as they downed luckless Sunderland 1-3 at the Stadium of Light.

A  brace by Fernando Torres to add to his two on Wednesday ended a much better week for the under fire striker. Mata added the third. An Adam Johnson beauty briefly brought Sunderland back into the game, but Benitez's controlled substitutions ultimately lead the Londoners to their first three-point haul since October.

A brilliant kick away from Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet on two minutes thwarted in-running Eden Hazard who collected the ball on the edge of the home side's area.

The Belgium midfielder was put through by an exquisite defence-splitting pass from Juan Mata.

Mata had a good chance a minute later, with Hazard this time the provider. However Mata chose to cu the ball across goal instead of trying to have a strike on goal. The effort bypassed Fernando Torres who mistimed his run.

Torres should have scored on six minutes but Mignolet again kicked the ball away from the striker after the ball ricocheted off John O'Shea into the path of the Spain hit man.

The away side's dominance reaped full reward on 12 minutes, when, following an quick counter attack involving, Oriel Romeu, Victor Moses and Hazard, Torres found himself with little chance to think about what to do and stuck his foot out to latch onto Hazard's left byline cross to steer the ball past hapless Mignolet from six yards out.

Right on the 16th minute, as expected the chants of "One Di Matteo" rang out from the travelling supporters.

Following a clash with Connor Wickham a few minutes earlier, Romeu eventually fell to the ground unable to run off his injury - he was replaced by Oscar on 20 minutes.

Sunderland railed, and on 24 minutes were unlucky not to see an aggressive passage of play end with a goal.

Stephane Sessegnon, in particular forcing Petr Cech into. Fine diving save on 28 minutes.

Adam Johnson, wide on the right then showed a clean pair of heels to Ashley Cole and his byline cross was forced away for a corner as the Black Cats piled on the pressure.

But maintains pressure for any length of time is difficult and the Blues gradually regained control of the game though their possession play.

Craig Gardener tried his luck from 25 yards but the effort went high and wide of Cech's goal.

The midfielder then became the first man into Mark Halsey's book after misfiring a tackle on Oscar with two minutes of the half remaining.

Deep into injury time and the Blues notched up their second goal by virtue of a Torres penalty.

Larsson made a needless challenge on Ramires as the ball was heading out across the byline, but his lunge, which cut down Ramires, gave Halsey no option but to point to the spot. Which Torres tucked home with consummate ease, sending Mignolet the wrong way to plant the ball high and wide into the right hand corner of the net.

The Blues continued the second half where they left off the first by attacking and within four minutes had scored their third.

Juan Mata planted a perfect left-footed curler from just outside the six-yard past Mignolet.

He received the ball after Torres had smacked the upright after Larsson lost control of the ball.

Moses screwed the ball across goal two minutes later as the Champions of Europe threatened to run riot.

Shell-shocked Sunderland recovered from the onslaught and tried to make a fist of the game, pressing from the wings especially James McClean of the right.

However the majority of the 39, 273 sensed that if their side did not score quickly hey never would.

Perhaps sensing their opponents were getting a foothold in the game, Benitez decided to make a voluntary substitution, bringing on defence-minded Ryan Bertrand for Moses on 61 minutes.

Bertrand's introduction failed to work as he home side scored a wonderful goal on 67 minutes.

David Luiz only made. Half-hearted attempt to clean his lines, allowing the ball to be fed, wide to the left to Johnson.

The winger took one touch and from the apex of the area produced a sizzler of a shot that pinged its way past Cech to arrow into the top left hand corner of the keeper's net.

Luiz did better three minutes later, clearing the ball for a corner as the Black Cats exerted sustained pressure.

Johnson was so unluckily not to have notched up his second three minutes later when he produced a ferocious 20-yard free kick, which seemed destined for the top corner of the net. But Cech was equal to the task, diving heroically to his left to tip the ball round his post.

Benitez's last throw of the die to shore up the two-goal lead came on 79 minutes, when he brought on Frank Lampard to replace Hazard.

Martin O'Neil responded by taking off Larsson for Louis Saha.

Lampard made Mignolet's hands sting with a trademark 25-yard zinger as the Blues took the sting out of Sunderland's gallant late rally.

Gardener rattled the crossbar deep into added time, but the two-goal deficit was too much to overcome. The Blues head directly off to Japan for the FIF Club World Cup from nearby Newcastle airport, leaving the home side to consider what is rapidly becoming a battle against relegation.

 

Team: Chelsea - Cech, Ivanovic, Cole, Luiz, Romeu, Ramires, Torres, Mata, Moses, Hazard, Cahill

Subs- Turnbull, Lampard, Oscar, Ferreira, Marin, Azpilicueta, Bertrand

Sunderland - Mignolet, Bardsley, Rose, Larsson, Gardner, Wickham, O'Shea, Johnson, McClean, Cuellar, Sessegnon

Subs - Campbell, Kilgallon, Colback, Vaughan, Bramble, Westwood, Saha

Referee - Mark Halsey