On This Day (16th January 2010): Seventh heaven for Chelsea as Sunderland hammered!

Today at 01:00 AM

An early January trip to Stamford Bridge was memorable for Sunderland, but for all the wrong reasons as Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea ran riot against Steve Bruce's depleted side

Under Steve Bruce, we Sunderland were bad, we were really bad, and this was one of the days that Bruce probably never reflects back on when considering his time as manager.

With injuries to the likes of Nyron Nosworthy, Michael Turner and Anton Ferdinand, we were left hopelessly short at the back, with captain Lorik Cana having to deputise alongside Paolo Da Silva.

In hindsight, the Cana/Da Silva partnership was destined for failure and it was actually the performance of Cana that came in for stinging criticism post-match, from pundits who slated the Albanian's ability to hold the line and not dive in.

Instead, Albanian midfielder Lorik Cana, deputising at the back with the likes of Nyron Nosworthy and Anton Ferdinand injured, produced a truly disastrous display.

Time and again he was caught out, and with Chelsea in no mood to forgive his ineptitude, Sunderland's modus operandi quickly went from early optimism to damage limitation.

It must be said that this wasn't the Chelsea team of recent years, but one littered with international stars such as Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda, Michael Ballack, and Stamford Bridge darlings John Terry and Frank Lampard.

Coached by a certain Carlo Ancelotti, this was always going to be a tough game, notwithstanding the injuries that destroyed Bruce's side, but the disappointment was surely at how little resistance we managed to put up, and within half an hour, goals from Anelka, Ashley Cole, Malouda and Lampard saw the Lads 4-0 down.

Cana's defending for the first goal summed up how the afternoon was going to go when his dreadful attempt at playing the offside trap left him standing still with the entire game continuing around him.

Although the game was over, the second half was nicer to us, with the away fans at least enjoying a couple of goals from Bolo Zenden and Darren Bent at their end of the stadium.

In fact, our attacking play wasn't that bad at times and if we weren't so leaky at the other end, it could actually have been a half-decent match.

Sunderland's only crumb of comfort was the odd threat they posed in attack.

Bent had a snap shot easily saved by Petr Cech, while Daryl Murphy was bravely denied by the keeper from eight yards out after good work by Kenwyne Jones.

In goal, Marton Fulop was having a great game and leaking only seven goals was a minor miracle given how many chances were created and saved in this game; indeed, a performance like this was something the late goalkeeper was always capable of.

After the game, there was nothing Bruce could say that could excuse or defend this performance. The quality of the opposition aside, he was in the midst of another mid-season wobble, overseeing far too many losses and making far too many excuses for them.

On this day, at least, there was nothing he could do but hope that no lasting psychological damage would follow.

There's no getting away from it, we have had our backsides well and truly kicked.

We've got a lot of players missing defensively and this is a hard enough place to come when you have a full strength side.

But we couldn't get near them today. It was a procession, and we can only hope that we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, and respond.