Roker Report - Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland: How It HappenedSunderland AFC's foremost blog and Podcast!https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/51357/rr-fav.png2014-04-21T14:24:24+01:00http://rokerreport.sbnation.com/rss/stream/53946752014-04-21T14:24:24+01:002014-04-21T14:24:24+01:00Gallagher: Penalty Decision Justified
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<figcaption>Mike Hewitt</figcaption>
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<p>People are actually talking about stuff Sunderland have done. </p> <p>Former referee Dermot Gallagher believes Mike Dean was justified in awarding Sunderland the matchwinning penalty at Stamford Bridge, but Gus Poyet's men can also count themselves fortunate that they didn't concede one themselves.</p>
<p>Dean pointing to the spot after Cesar Azpilicueta appeared to trip Jozy Altidore in the box has dominated the headlines, thanks mainly some vintage if petulant deflection from Jose Mourinho in his comments after the Blues' 2-1 defeat. Gallagher has defended the decision, though.</p>
<p>He told <a target="_blank" href="http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9276384">Sky Sports News</a>:</p>
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<p>I can understand why it was given. The assistant raises his flag. I thought he had taken him with his trailing leg.</p>
<p>I thought his left leg took the back of his ankle, that was my first impression on Saturday night. The assistant thought the same. Mike Dean was guided by his assistant.</p>
<p>What I will say is that was not a stonewall penalty. You can watch it 100 times and you will change your mind 100 times.</p>
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<p>Gallagher's comments echo those of another former ref, Graham Poll, who described it as a 'grey area', but it seems that just about everyone is in agreement that it wasn't strictly a wrong decision. It was just one of those that sometimes you get and sometimes you don't. There have been plenty in that category that we haven't been given this season, so we'll take this one thank you very much.</p>
<p>The other two major talking points from a refereeing standpoint involved Seb Larsson and Ramires. Gallagher didn't try to defend the latter's forearm smash late in the first half because, well, you can't, but he does believe Larsson was very fortunate not to concede a penalty shortly before that when he appeared to jump into Ramires as he was about to head into an empty net.</p>
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<p>I did think that was a penalty because Ramires was about to head the ball into the net - and it would have been a red card. The referee did not deem that to be a penalty for whatever reason.</p>
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<p>Ah well, we'll take that one too!</p>
<p>All about results at this stage. The how and the why is unimportant!</p>
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https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/21/5635814/sunderland-chelsea-2014-altidore-penalty-ramires-banmichaelgraham2014-04-21T08:44:01+01:002014-04-21T08:44:01+01:00Quick Kicks: Vito Is Back; Jozy Earns Some Love
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<figcaption>Jamie McDonald</figcaption>
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<p>We pick out a few points of interest from the stunning win at Stamford Bridge. </p> <h4>Welcome back, Vito!</h4>
<p>Mannone's mistake at Manchester City last week was one of the most gut-wrenching moments of the season. It wasn't just because of the points it cost, but because you could see that it genuinely hurt him.</p>
<p>Against Chelsea it was obvious that the blunder was still playing on the loveable Italian's mind. He was very shaky early on and very tentative on a couple of corners, including the one from which Samuel Eto'o opened the scoring. From that point on, though, he was magnificent.</p>
<p>By the time the final whistle had blown, Mannone had made a colossal 14 saves. None of them were especially special, but it was the joint most amount of saves in a match any goalkeeper has made in the Premier League in the last decade.</p>
<p>It's good to have you back, Vito.</p>
<h4>Penalty?</h4>
<p>Does anyone even care?</p>
<p>Well, I suppose that Jose Mourinho and at least one of his assistants care, and the pundits have certainly had their say. I'm going to do something I can't ever remember doing before and agree with Graham Poll.</p>
<p>Poll wrote in his newspaper column that the incident was a 'grey area' and a fair case could have been made for either decision and I think that's basically true. César Azpilicueta didn't intend to make a challenge and it was more an innocent and accidental tangle of legs that occured, but I think if a defender leaves his feet in his own box and takes down an attacker in control of the ball without winning it, he can't have too many complaints.</p>
<p>It's the kind of decision that Sunderland don't usually get and Chelsea do - in fact it was the first Premier League penalty the Blues have conceded all season - so surely we can have this one?</p>
<h4>Matchwinner Jozy!</h4>
<p>Say what you want about Jozy Altidore, and most do, but he won the matchwinning penalty and no one can take that away from him. He came off the bench and made a difference in a crucial moment of the season. Well done that man.</p>
<p>He hasn't had an easy time of it and, yes, most of the criticism that has been directed to him has been fair given his struggles in front of goal, but you have to give the lad credit where it's due otherwise it stops being criticism and becomes an agenda instead.</p>
<p>It may surprise people to know that over the course of the season, Sunderland's win percentage in all competitions when Altidore has been involved is 36% compared to just 11% without him. In fact, Sunderland haven't won a single Premier League game without Altidore getting on the pitch, taking just two points from seven games. May be that's a coincidence, I don't know. But may be it's time to also cut him a little slack and give him a little love.</p>
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https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/21/5635166/sunderland-chelsea-2014-altidore-mannone-reactionmichaelgraham2014-04-19T21:52:08+01:002014-04-19T21:52:08+01:00In Pictures: Sunderland Beat Chelsea
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<figcaption>Mike Hewitt</figcaption>
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https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631786/in-pictures-sunderland-beat-chelseamichaelgraham2014-04-19T21:22:22+01:002014-04-19T21:22:22+01:00Twitter Reacts To Sunderland Stunning Chelsea
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<figcaption>Mike Hewitt</figcaption>
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<p>Occasionally, we like seeing what people say about Sunderland!</p> <p>We don't often do this because, to be honest, it would usually involve us specifically going out and searching for people saying how rubbish we are, and that's just no one's idea of a fun post-match evening.</p>
<p>But since Sunderland have done something a little special, we gave Twitter a brief scan to pick out some of the comments. Enjoy.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>FULL-TIME Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland. Astonishing. The bottom club end Jose Mourinho&#39;s 77-match unbeaten home <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BPL&amp;src=hash">#BPL</a> record <a href="http://t.co/xXw2vehxYa">pic.twitter.com/xXw2vehxYa</a></p>&mdash; Premier League (@premierleague) <a href="https://twitter.com/premierleague/statuses/457585283039367168">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>This season is utterly ludicrous. Totally bonkers. Insanely brilliant!</p>&mdash; Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) <a href="https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/statuses/457585244640903168">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>"<a href="https://twitter.com/SamNewbrookWBA">@SamNewbrookWBA</a>: How does <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidJonesSky">@DavidJonesSky</a> manage to keep his calm on live TV after a result like that." With great difficulty ...</p>&mdash; DAVID JONES (@DavidJonesSky) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidJonesSky/statuses/457603708977958912">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Massive performance from Sunderland! David can beat Goliath. Tomorrow we must believe. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ImpossibleIsNothing&amp;src=hash">#ImpossibleIsNothing</a> ⚽️👊 runs there to be broken 👊</p>&mdash; Elliott Bennett (@Ebenno88) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ebenno88/statuses/457585329722368001">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Raise your hand if you had Sunderland taking 4 points at City and Chelsea in the same week. Hands down, liars.</p>&mdash; ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/statuses/457594565017358336">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Borini: &quot;I had lots of tweets from Liverpool fans asking for a favour, they’ll be happy. But today it was for Sunderland." Class act.</p>&mdash; This Is Anfield (@thisisanfield) <a href="https://twitter.com/thisisanfield/statuses/457588676827303936">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Unbelievable stuff from Sunderland this week. Hoping Liverpool don&#39;t get complacent. Best Premiership season I can ever remember.</p>&mdash; Bad News Barrett (@WadeBarrett) <a href="https://twitter.com/WadeBarrett/statuses/457595898982596608">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>What a result! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23believe&amp;src=hash">#believe</a></p>&mdash; Connor Wickham (@ConnorWickham10) <a href="https://twitter.com/ConnorWickham10/statuses/457606033071153152">April 19, 2014</a></blockquote></span></p>
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https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631704/twitter-reacts-to-sunderland-stunning-chelseamichaelgraham2014-04-19T20:59:16+01:002014-04-19T20:59:16+01:00Chelsea 1-2 Sunderland: Player Ratings
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<figcaption>Mike Hewitt</figcaption>
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<p>Bet you're all in too good a mood to tell us we are wrong this week... </p> <h4>Vito Mannone - 7</h4>
<p>Shaky start after his midweek blunder but grew in confidence and pulled off some important, if routine, saves.</p>
<h4>Santiago Vergini - 7</h4>
<p>Occasionally allowed crosses to come into the box a little too easily but solid once again and improving all the time. Starting to look like the player Gus Poyet told us he was.</p>
<h4>John O'Shea - 7</h4>
<p>This was the good O'Shea, the one we want to see. If this was the O'Shea we got every week, he'd be a far more popular player.</p>
<h4>Wes Brown - 8</h4>
<p>Warrior. Brown has reacted to his Spurs stinker admirably with three very good performances since, with this one being the stand-out.</p>
<h4>Marcos Alonso - 8</h4>
<p>His best game in a Sunderland shirt? I think so. Defensively he was solid and he also contributed going forward. Fine performance.</p>
<h4>Lee Cattermole - 6</h4>
<p>Catts has been the main man for Sunderland over the last couple of weeks but he wasn't at his best here. He started nervously and never quite found his passing range.</p>
<h4>Jack Colback - 6</h4>
<p>A safe pair of hands in the middle but nothing progressive or creative. Suppose I've just summed him up generally, though. Nothing to see here.</p>
<h4>Seb Larsson - 8</h4>
<p>See below.</p>
<h4>Adam Johnson - 6</h4>
<p>Pretty average but can't be the hero every week.</p>
<h4>Fabio Borini - 7</h4>
<p>A wonderfully cool penalty. Did anyone doubt he was going to tuck it home? Not me. Not for one second.</p>
<h4>Connor Wickham - 7</h4>
<p>Added another goal to his growing collection and battled through a knock to help the side. Well played.</p>
<h4>Jozy Altidore - 7</h4>
<p>Slightly inflated score perhaps, but the American was the matchwinner.</p>
<h4>Emanuele Giaccherini - 6</h4>
<p>Ddidn't contribute a lot but seemed to bring some calming big-game experience into the Sunderland side when needed.</p>
<h4>Ondrej Celustka - 6</h4>
<p>Needs to work on his 'hold it in the corner' play book!</p>
<h4>Man Of The Match: Seb Larsson</h4>
<p>He's a player we are happy to dish out a little stick to but you have to take your hat off to him today. Tireless in the midfield and influential. When he leaves this summer, him standing on the touchline having been subbed directing everything like an animated assistant manager in full kit (see pic) may well be my favourite memory of the Swede. Bless him.</p>
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https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631606/chelsea-1-2-sunderland-player-ratingsmichaelgraham2014-04-19T19:35:06+01:002014-04-19T19:35:06+01:00Match Report: Chelsea 1 Sunderland 2
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<figcaption>Mike Hewitt</figcaption>
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<p>Sunderland went into this game facing an uphill task days after grabbing an unlikely, but disappointing, point at Man City midweek. </p> <p dir="ltr">Sunderland came away with a remarkable three points from Stamford Bridge and suddenly resurrected their chances of survival.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The deadlock was broken on 11 minutes when Samuel Eto'o met a Willian corner by taking advantage of some familiar statue-esque defending from Sunderland.</p>
<p>Sunderland responded positively and equalized soon after on 18 minutes. A corner was rolled to Alonso 25 yards out who's shot was fumbled by Mark Schwarzer. Connor Wickham then calmly dinked the ball over the Australian stopper.</p>
<p>The loveable John Terry had the ball in the net a good few seconds after the officials pulled up Matic for a foul on Jack Colback. Though the Sunderland defenders had reacted to the whistle, it was a generous decision. (In Stephen Goldsmith's opinion).</p>
<p>Branislav Ivanovic headed the ball onto the bar via a fumbling Mannone, before Matic and Salah forced him into a double save. The Italian then saved with his feet from Willian and watched on as Seb Larsson muscled Ramires out of what seemed a certain goal.</p>
<p>Either side of the second incident there was some officiating which annoyed both sides. Alonso handballed in the area but could clearly not avoid it, before Ramires bitch-slapped Larsson in the face off the ball. Mike Dean missed that particular one from three yards away.</p>
<p>Chelsea almost opened the scoring early in the second half when Eto'o fired inches wide after a breakaway move. Later, Ba sliced wide from an excellent position after slipping not long after coming on for Oscar.</p>
<p>With ten minutes remaining Jozy Altidore pounced on an Azpilicueta mistake to burst clear and win a questionable penalty. Fabio Borini calmly converted and Sunderland remarkably took the lead.</p>
<p>Schurrie forced Mannonne to tip over from distance, before the host's had another hopeful penalty claim turned down soon after. Terry headed into Vito's hands in injury time with hearts firmly in mouths in the away end.</p>
<p>Substitute Giacherrini fired over from distance as the clock ran down before hashing up a three on one counter attack situation. But it was immaterial as the visitors hung on to become the first EVER side to win a league game at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho.</p>
<p><b>Chelsea:</b> Schwarzer; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Matic; Willian, Oscar (BA 59'), Salah (Schurrle 65') ; Eto'o (Torres 74')</p>
<p><b>Sunderland:</b> Mannone; Vergini, O'Shea, Brown, Alonso; Johnson, Borini, Cattermole, Colback, Larsson (Celustka 90'); Wickham (Altidore 65')</p>
https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631356/match-report-chelsea-1-sunderland-2Goldylad2014-04-19T19:10:30+01:002014-04-19T19:10:30+01:00GIF: Borini Gives Sunderland The Lead<img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lFBuv_dRKTwEbb5Ol2zbNs_Qals=/410x410/cdn.vox-cdn.com/fan_shot_images/327145/InsistentEmbarrassedLadybird.gif" />
<div class="source source-img"><p><p>Jozy Altidore wins a penalty which Fabio Borini converts to make it 2-1.</p></p></div>
https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631410/gif-borini-gives-sunderland-the-leadAndy Tomlinson2014-04-19T18:16:29+01:002014-04-19T18:16:29+01:00GIF: Ramires Gets Away With Elbowing Larsson<img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ezUhnJK-Pr0xvWnerMyiIwDRHCo=/410x410/cdn.vox-cdn.com/fan_shot_images/327139/OrganicBeautifulBantamrooster.gif" />
<div class="source source-img"><p><p>Ramires hits out at Seb Larsson but somehow escapes without a red card.</p></p></div>
https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/4/19/5631284/gif-ramires-gets-away-with-elbowing-larssonAndy Tomlinson