Ruud
Gullit says Chelsea should be disappointed with their display after a 0-0
draw against Sunderland on
Saturday Night Football.
The Blues struggled to break down a resilient Black Cats side and at times
looked short of ideas in the final third.
While manager Jose Mourinho said he was content with the point, former
Chelsea player Gullit was not as impressed by the Blues’ display.
“They have to be disappointed with their own performance, especially
tactically,” he said on
Saturday Night Football. “Everybody was
inside all game and it was exactly what Sunderland wanted, it was easy for
them.
“Of course they had to make an effort and be disciplined but you can’t say
to Sunderland, 'you have to play attacking football', because they are not
as good as Chelsea.
“Chelsea were slow-paced, with no width at all and only six attempts on
target. Perhaps because they played three times in a week they could have
been a bit tired.”
The draw sees unbeaten Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premier
League to seven points, although that could be cut when second-placed
Southampton host Manchester City on Super Sunday.
Next up for the Blues is a home match against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday
evening, when they will be without Diego Costa after he picked up his fifth
booking of the season against Sunderland.
The striker was shown a yellow card for catching Wes Brown with his arm as
the two players went up for a header and Gullit believes he was fortunate
not to have seen red.
“He was lucky to get away with it,” he said. “You can interpret it two ways
– That he is unfortunate because he swings his arm out, (or) if he did it on
purpose it was very clever to do it in this way.
“You can see he is frustrated, that comes because everybody played in the
middle of the park, he had no room and no shots at goal because everybody
was around him and he didn’t know where to go.
"He got away with it, but it’s the frustration of what happened and I think
it’s a great compliment to what Sunderland did while tactically it was not
very clever from Chelsea.”
At the heart of Sunderland’s solid defensive display was man of the match
Lee Cattermole, who put in a brilliant performance in front of the back
four.
Sunderland manager Gus Poyet said he plays the defensive midfielder role to
"perfection" and Gullit was full of praise for the 26-year-old.
“He’s the little piece of the jigsaw that you need to let the others be
creative,” he said. “He is like a policeman in midfield, he makes sure of
the runs and fills the holes. All the passes through the middle he was
intercepting and you need a player like that in your team.”
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