Who saw this coming? Exactly one year ago Sunderland won the Championship playoffs and were installed as everybody’s relegation favourites. Régis Le Bris and his wonderfully resilient side harboured a rather different vision and they executed it so well they have finished seventh, securing a lucrative passport to the Europa League. No one is patronising Sunderland now.
This fully merited win against a Chelsea side whose own European ambitions were shredded along the way was in many ways emblematic of their season. It was a day when the second-tier old boys upstaged the Club World Cup holders, when Enzo Le Fée eclipsed Chelsea’s World Cup-winning Enzo Fernández and when the excellent Granit Xhaka ruled central midfield. What price Le Bris for manager of the year?
“We’re disappointed,” said Calum McFarlane, Chelsea interim manager, making himself heard above the strains of the celebratory music floating through the media room walls. “We’re gutted.”
His side, very much second best even before Wesley Fofana’s 62nd-minute sending-off for a second yellow card, had arrived hoping for Europa League qualification. They flew back south in 10th, with Xabi Alonso, their incoming manager, doubtless pondering a sizeable challenge ahead.
In contrast, Le Bris can look forward to Sunderland’s first European campaign since their continental debut in the 1973-74 Cup Winners’ Cup, which concluded with a second-round defeat by Sporting Lisbon.
Champions League Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool
Europa League Bournemouth, Sunderland (Crystal Palace will also play in the Europa League if they win the Conference League final on Wednesday)
Conference League Brighton
“I’m proud,” said Le Bris, who signed 14 players last summer. “We’ve created something special. For me, it’s the top moment. It’s top, top, top. It’s hard to believe, to be honest. But it’s an important step for Sunderland. It shows everything is possible.”
Four years ago Luke O’Nien was playing League One football at the Stadium of Light. Here the central defender fully held his own against Cole Palmer and company and even found time to turn goal creator by using his head to flick a long ball from Robin Roefs into Trai Hume’s path.
The Northern Ireland international responded instinctively and, as Hume’s fabulous first-time volley hit the back of Robert Sánchez’s net, Europe suddenly moved an almost insurmountable distance from Chelsea. Hume, who had a very good game, is also a survivor from Sunderland’s third-tier days.
To say his 25th-minute opener was deserved would be an understatement. The visitors struggled to cope with Sunderland’s intensity and invention throughout and spent long periods camped uncomfortably in their own half.
The moment when Fernández shoved over the hugely influential Le Fée – who would depart to a standing ovation in stoppage time – proved a microcosm of the mounting visiting frustration. Chelsea were struggling to dismantle their hosts’ hallmark passing triangles, let alone find a way to bypass the central-defensive barrier presented by the impressive Paris Saint-Germain old boy Nordi Mukiele and O’Nien.
Le Fée began the second half by sending a clever flicked pass into the path of Brian Brobbey and only Sánchez’s outstretched leg came between the Dutchman and an extension of Sunderland’s lead.
It proved a temporary stay of execution. When Le Fée crossed from the right, Brobbey’s connection was poor and his shot seemed to be bobbling wide but Malo Gusto’s shin got in the way and sent it flying past Sánchez.
The moment had arrived for the previously nearly anonymous Palmer to remind Thomas Tuchel that, despite behind omitted from the England squad, he remains a far from shabby finisher. A swipe of the forward’s left boot from about 20 yards proved too good for Roefs, who touched but could not hold a shot he probably should have saved.
As the tension rose and tempers frayed, Fofana was dismissed for attempting to rugby tackle Wilson Isidor. It was Chelsea’s 11th red card of an indisciplined and chaotic campaign presided over by three managers.
The clarity of thought of Le Bris, Xhaka and company produced a happier ending. At the final whistle, the stadium announcer had a two-word message. “Let’s party,” he urged and, more than an hour later Sunderland’s manager, his players and their families were still celebrating on the pitch in front of an audience in absolutely no rush to go home.
