Afterthoughts - Sunderland

Well for me it was an indifferent game on Sunday. I was very surprised that they decided to rest Lampard. I thought that Guus would of played him knowing how important he is and how much he wants to play. I hope that it was purely to rest him and that he hasn't picked up a knock or something. Let's hope that Frank will be well rested and ready for the game on Saturday.

I can understand giving Ivanovic a run out in place of Alex. I think its safe to say that Alex will play next to JT on Saturday, so that one i could understand.

It was always going to be a midfield dog-fight with Sunderland lining up with a 5 man midfield and it proved to be the case. But still, we created plenty of chances and tested their keeper on more than one occasion.

But, bearing in mind the Cup Final was less than a week away and maybe some people should be playing for their places i was unimpressed with Drogba as apart from one or two moments didn't really have any effect on the game and more often not found himself drifting out wide.

Cech was sloppy with both goals. He should of done much better for the first one and the second one was a joke in my opinion. A free header under no pressure from 6 yards is beyond me.

I thought that Essien and Bosingwa didn't really have much of an effect on the game either. Cole, Anelka & Mikel had their usual solid games and it was nice to see Cole get on the scoresheet and he took his goal well you have to say. JT and Ivanovic looked solid at the back apart from the second goal as they could do nothing about the first one.

All in all an away win is always a good result and to give Guus three points for his send off was nice. I don't know if it was the heat, the occasion or the fact that the Cup Final is in their minds but i thought we could of played alot better.

Let's hope this week they get their act together and we have the usual Chelsea performance we are used to in the Final.