Sunderland midfielder Dean Whitehead believes they had Chelsea on the ropes during Saturday's defeat.

Whitehead said: "We weren't disgraced, but we can't have any grumbles about the result, really. We did OK at United and Arsenal and felt we might have got a point, but Chelsea were fair value for their win.

"We had trouble in the first half getting used to their system and how we were going to deal with it. Shaun Wright-Phillips caused us a lot of problems in the first-half drifting all over the pitch and he was difficult to pick up.

"We got on top of them a bit more in the second half and I think we rattled them for a while. We didn't get in behind them enough, but I don't think they were having it their own way.

"The penalty for their second goal made things more comfortable."