Sunderland 2, Chelsea 3

May 25 2009 by Paul Cunningham, The Journal

IT was not meant to like be this. Very early on yesterday it became clear Sunderland’s match against Chelsea would be a glorious irrelevance. Black Sabbath would be someone else’s problem.

In a season where they escaped relegation by default, it was fitting the Black Cats supporters should be celebrating after a defeat. They clearly enjoyed it, noisily cheering the goals as they went in at Hull and in east London, and producing a roar when Aston Villa took the lead that would have been audible from St James’s Park.

It was just as well they had so much to cheer elsewhere because, as so often this season, there was little to make them smile on the pitch at the Stadium of Light. If three points less and another relegation battle more fraught than the last is what £80m buys you then Ellis Short, watching from his director’s box seat, might be forgiven for keeping his hand in his pocket.

Reports in the morning papers had it that the Texan billionaire is prepared to bankroll the club’s transfer policy to the tune of £200m in the summer. It sounds a fanciful figure in a credit crunch but even if it is true, yesterday was a reminder that his cash comes with absolutely no guarantee.

Short spent lavishly 12 months ago as Roy Keane rebuilt his squad to take it to “the next level”. It bought him two problem players, El-Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda, who were jettisoned before they had the opportunity to do any more damage, a striker in David Healy who Premier League managers seem happy to buy but for some reason not to play and another, far more expensive one, in Djibril Cisse, who will be sent back to Marseilles this week now his loan has expired.

George McCartney was missing as so often this season through injury, leaving just Anton Ferdinand, Steed Malbranque and Teemu Tainio in the starting line-up for what was a potentially crucial match.