Paul Merson slams Chelsea star after Sunderland defeat – ‘You can’t do that’

Chelsea lost more ground in the race for Champions League qualification after underwhelming in a home defeat to newly-promoted Sunderland and Paul Merson was less than impressed

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson was left frustrated by Marc Guiu’s anonymity during Chelsea’s defeat at home to Sunderland on Saturday. The Spanish striker was recalled by Enzo Maresca after Liam Delap suffered an injury in August, having briefly been a Sunderland loanee, but made next to no impact against the Black Cats.

Things looked up for Chelsea when Alejandro Garnacho fired them into an early lead, but an equaliser from Wilson Isidor stopped their momentum. Guiu and his team-mates struggled to gain a foothold in the second half and it was the visitors who snatched victory trough substitute Chemsdine Talbi.

“Well impressed with Sunderland today, I wasn’t with Chelsea,” Merson said. “I thought they’d struggle. They need Delap back badly, they need a focal point.

“Guiu played up front and I think he touched the ball nine, ten times. You can’t do that in a team that are supposed to be dominating the ball.

“Chelsea ran out of ideas. They had winger after winger but half of them don’t go past anyone. Joao Pedro looked lost as a number ten. They struggled and were pretty poor.”

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Sunderland’s win was their fifth in nine games and was enough to lift them up to second in the Premier League table. They could drop out of the top four by the end of the weekend, though, with Manchester City, Bournemouth and Liverpool all able to leapfrog them.

Chelsea are down in eighth after their defeat and could be even lower down by the time the weekend is over. Crystal Palace and Aston Villa can both overtake them with wins, while Everton could draw level on points the Blues if they beat Tottenham.

They are back in action on Wednesday, facing Wolves in the Carabao Cup. Delap could return for that game after nearly two full months out with a hamstring injury, with Chelsea taking as many points in the three games he played in the league as in the six he has missed.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was left frustrated by his team’s failure to build on their fast start against Sunderland. “I think we were not good enough in general. We know that in the moment you drop a little bit you can lose points against any team in the Premier League. It is so difficult. Overall we were not good enough,” the Italian told Sky Sports.

“We started well with the goal. Even with that the feeling was we were losing in terms of physicality and second balls. Against this type of team it’s always dangerous.

“It’s always difficult, they bring seven, eight players inside the box. We tried to prepare that but it can happen. We were not good enough. When you are not good enough you can drop points against anyone.”

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