Sunderland beat Chelsea 1-0: Le Fée's penalty ends a seven-game wait for a win and lifts Sunderland off the bottom

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Sunderland beat Chelsea 1-0 at the Stadium of Light on Sunday 8 November, in the Premier League’s 15:00 CET kick-off. Enzo Le Fée scored the only goal from the penalty spot in the 36th minute, after Brian Brobbey was brought down by Levi Colwill. It was Sunderland’s first league win in eight games and it lifts them off the bottom of the table to 19th. Chelsea, fourth before kick-off, drop to fifth, below Liverpool.

How it happened

Sunderland lost their captain, Granit Xhaka, after three minutes: Sky Sports’ report says he went down off the ball and limped off injured. It did not slow them. Sky Sports says Chelsea were second best from the start, and that no Chelsea midfielder won a duel or a tackle in the first 20 minutes. Brobbey, Sunderland’s striker, had the first chances. He failed to convert a cross from Chesmine Talbi in the 14th minute, and in the 28th he took on Wesley Fofana, the last defender, only for his touch to take him wide and his shot to miss.

Chelsea’s best moment of the half came in the 24th minute, when Cole Palmer went down under a double challenge from Luke O’Nien and the substitute Jules Ahoka, right on the edge of the penalty area. Sky Sports says the video assistant referee (VAR, the official who reviews key decisions on a screen) checked the incident and found no foul, inside or outside the box, so there was no penalty. A minute later Morgan Rogers headed a cross from Marco Palestra off target.

The goal came in the 36th minute. Brobbey rolled past Colwill in the area, Sky Sports says, Colwill brought him down, and Le Fée scored the penalty. Sunderland led 1-0 at half-time. Xabi Alonso, Chelsea’s head coach, took Colwill off at the break and sent on Estêvão.

Chelsea created little after that. Sky Sports describes a goal-saving tackle by Thomas Meunier in the 61st minute, after Rogers had tried to play Estêvão through, and says Geovany Quenda’s shot wide of the far post in the 81st minute was Chelsea’s first chance of note in the second half. Sunderland could have had a second: in the 77th minute a loose ball fell to the substitute Wilson Isidor, through on goal, and Mike Penders, Chelsea’s goalkeeper, saved his powerful shot. In the second minute of stoppage time Danny Welbeck headed an Estêvão free-kick over from inside the area. Sky Sports mentions no red card. Its report does not carry the starting line-ups, so we cannot say whether Moisés Caicedo, a doubt before the game, played.

What it changes

Sunderland have eight points from ten games: two wins, two draws and six defeats, with a goal difference of minus nine. They climb one place to 19th, level on points with Manchester United, who drew 4-4 with Aston Villa, and one point above Crystal Palace, who lost 1-3 at home to Liverpool and are now bottom. Before kick-off Sunderland had gone seven league games without a win, as our preview set out; this ends that run. Coventry City and Nottingham Forest, in 17th and 16th, are one point ahead on nine.

Chelsea have 16 points from ten games, five wins, one draw and four defeats. Liverpool’s win at Palace takes them two points clear in fourth, and Chelsea are fifth, level on points with Everton in sixth. The international break follows: the fixture list in our data has no club match in the next week.

What the market said

A betting price is a crowd’s opinion written as a number, and dividing 1 by the price gives a rough chance. The last price BettingBeast’s feed captured before kick-off, at 14:14 CET, made Chelsea the favourite at 2.17, about a 46% chance. Sunderland were 3.59, about 28%, and the draw 3.69, about 27%. Sunderland, the outsider, won. The price had moved a little towards Sunderland during the week: when the feed first carried the game, on 2 November at 21:22 CET, Chelsea were 2.07, about 48%, and Sunderland 3.67, about 27%. The goals line at the close was 2.5, with over at 1.96 and under at 2.08. The game had one goal.

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