Sunderland 3-4 Chelsea: Hazard Stars As Blues Hold Off Fightback

Eden Hazard stole the show as Chelsea remained in second place in the Premier League following an action packed game at The Stadium of Light which ended 4-3 to the visitors, but it was a mad two minutes for Phil Bardsley that will no doubt have the fans and Head Coach Gus Poyet talking. Sunderland tried to take advantage of Chelsea's poor start numerous times in the opening ten minutes, but it was the result of a Craig Gardner free kick that opened the scoring. The shot fired straight at the Chelsea wall, but Jack Colback timely found the USA international Altidore before firing home his first Premier League goal for Sunderland after 14 minutes. However, the lead lasted only three minutes, as a poor defensive performance from The Black Cats following a Chelsea corner lead to the equaliser €“ despite plenty of chances to clear the ball away from danger, Frank Lampard took advantage of the space with nobody marking him and headed in from six yards. After half an hour, Petr Cech pulled off a superb save from Borini to put it out for a corner following a Sunderland counter attack, but it was the visitors to take the lead before half time with a solo effort from Eden Hazard. The Belgian skilfully dribbled towards the edge of the penalty area before hitting a superb strike past Vito Mannone after 37 minutes to bag his seventh goal of the season for the Blues. It didn't take Gus Poyet's men long to get back into the game €“ with just four and a half minutes gone on the clock for the second half, Borini's corner failed to find the head of Wes Brown, but fortunately his centre-back partner John O'Shea was there to head it past Cech to level the scores again. Fernando Torres should have found the net five minutes later as Mannone parried Hazard's effort to the Spaniards feet, only for him to hit it wide and high past the Sunderland net, but they thoroughly deserved their third as man of the match Eden Hazard played a fantastic one-two with Lampard before curling it into the net from an impressive distance to make it 2-3. With five minutes left on the clock, there was a moment of madness from Bardsley in particular €“ the full-back scored an own goal in bizarre fashion, sliding in a horrible miss to make it 2-4. However, just a minute later, Bardsley scored again, but in the right net to pull it back to 3-4 with little time left. Six minutes were added on to the end of a cracking second half, and Sunderland could have easily scored again through Ki Sung Yueng, but it was too little too late as it was Jose Mourinho's men that travel back to the capital with all three points after a seven goal thriller on Wearside.