Chapter 286: Relegation and Championship

The 15/16 season has come to an end.

Chelsea have four games to play.

Among them, the Champions League final is scheduled on the 28th, so there is no need to consider it for the time being.

It is important to note the remaining three league games, including Sunderland in the 37th round, Liverpool in the 30th round, and the title tie against Leicester City in the final round.

Chelsea are currently level on points with Leicester City, but the goal difference is much higher than that of the opposition and they are in first place.

In the two games against Sunderland and Liverpool, if Chelsea can win, then in the final round of matches against Leicester City, as long as they do not lose more than 15 goals, Chelsea can successfully defend the title.

Wang Churan and they have not yet come out of China, and the Premier League games will continue to be played at the weekend.

At 22:00 China time on May 7 (15:00 local time in the UK), in the 37th round of the 15/16 Premier League season, the focus match between Chelsea and Sunderland was contested at the Stadium of Light.

Chelsea were level on points with Leicester City before the game and were top of the table on goal difference.

Sunderland are 17th with 35 points, just one point above the relegation zone, and they cannot afford to lose this game if they are to survive relegation.

The starting line-ups for both sides were announced before the start of the game.

For Chelsea, there was just one change compared to the midweek game against Bayern Munich, with Mikel rotating Pedro into the starting line-up.

Pato continues to be in the squad, and he has high expectations from the fans, but he actually struggles to meet the team's requirements.

Chelsea kick-off in the centre circle.

Surprisingly, Chelsea lost possession as soon as they kicked the ball.

Sunderland took the initiative to attack.

In the opening stages, the Chelsea players looked a little uncomfortable in the face of the aggressive pressing of the Sunderland players.

In the 45th second, Defoe took the ball and prepared to break through.

Stones flew and swooped, reaching out and tripping him.

Less than a minute later, Stones picked up the first yellow card of the game.

Sunderland's free-kick was directly blocked by a Chelsea player.

Chelsea quickly regained their rhythm.

In the 10th minute, Hazard returned a pass from the left side of the penalty area.

Willian won the ball and fired a low shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.

But Willian's low shot was easily picked up by Manone.

It was the first shot of the game to hit inside the goal.

Mannone takes a goal kick.

Once again, the two sides battled for possession of the ball in midfield.

Chelsea took the lead in the 14th minute.

John Stones stabbed a cross from the left side of the box, only to deflect it on Yedlin's leg.

Diego Costa wins the ball on the left side of the box and shoots into the bottom right corner from a tight angle.

Chelsea are 1-0 up.

It was Costa's 12th league goal of the season.

Cattermole's long ball was then met by Defoe's header from an offside position that hit the right-hand post.

Former Chelsea wing-back Van Aanholt passes the ball and Mwila shoots high from 20 yards.

Sunderland were very aggressive in attack, but never had a chance to threaten Jose.

In the 26th minute, Sunderland's hard work finally paid off.

Defoe crosses from the left side of the penalty area.

Yedlin's header from the edge of the six-yard box.

The ball flies straight below the goal.

Jose bent over to easily block the opposition's shot.

Sunderland failed to equalise.

The game continues.

Sunderland's defence was frequent.

Chelsea had a number of chances to shoot from the ground up in front of goal.

In the 39th minute, Cesar Azpilicueta shot from a tight angle on the left side of the penalty area.

The ball flies straight above the goal.

It's a pity that it was blocked by Mannone.

In the 41st minute, Sunderland crossed with a big foot from the left rib.

Near the arc island, players from both sides competed for the top one after another, and the ball was not far away.

John Stones clears the ball with a header.

The ball flies in front of the left side of the penalty area.

Sunderland's Khazri meets the ball and volleys in.

The ball turned into a high-speed cannonball and flew straight to the top right of the goal.

Detection data shows that Khazri's shot has been shot at a speed of more than 150 mph.

In the face of sheer speed, sometimes it doesn't take any skill and can be the biggest threat.

Faced with such a high-speed shot, José did not hesitate to use the "space-time pause".

There was no danger, Jose blocked Khazri's shot with both fists.

The game continues.

Chelsea continued to attack.

The last minute of stoppage time at half-time.

Nemanja Matic launched a counter-attack in midfield.

Xiaofa passes diagonally to the left.

Eden Hazard struggled for the ball and failed to get his hands on the ball, but he also deceived the opposing player.

Cesar Azpilicueta wins the ball on the left and goes straight to the left side of the penalty area.

Nemanja Matic struck quickly to get the ball.

From 12 yards on the left side of the penalty area, Nemanja Matic calmly pushed Mannone into the face.

Wear the crotch ball.

The ball passed under Mannone and rolled into the net.

Chelsea were already 2-0 up at half-time.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

Chelsea adjusted their tactics slightly and began to focus on defending and counter-attacking.

In the 49th minute, Hazard made a direct pass.

From 12 yards in the box, Diego Costa hit with his right foot.

The ball flies straight to the bottom left of the goal.

Unfortunately, the angle did not open up and was taken down by Mannone after falling to the ground.

Sunderland attacked aggressively and had even more chances on goal than Chelsea.

It's just that they met Jose and therefore couldn't get back on the scoresheet.

In the 61st minute, Xiaofa and Hazard combined with a pass on the left flank, attracting most of the Sunderland players to come forward to intercept.

Xiaofa crosses to the right side of the penalty area.

An unguarded Diego Costa got the ball in front of the six-yard box.

However, he didn't get his foot up and volleyed in the first place, giving Mannone plenty of time to react.

Chelsea missed a great opportunity.

In the 67th minute, Chelsea's defence made a series of errors.

Ivan, who was supposed to be guarding the right flank, was gone.

Van Aanholt crosses from the left unguarded.

The ball passed through the crowd and to the feet of Borini on the right side of the island.

The unguarded Borini stopped the ball and burst into the box and fired a powerful right-footed shot before Matic got close.

Jose was about to make a block, but Terry was in the way.

The ball hit Terry's calf and deflected towards the bottom left corner of the net.

The successive changes caught people off guard.

There was no way, so Jose had to use "Time and Space Pause" again.

This is the second time Jose has used a plug-in in this game, and it was no more than the case against Bayern in midweek.

If Chelsea's backline doesn't improve next season, Jose really doesn't want to play with them, and it's really tiring to carry a defensive line alone.

There was no danger, Jose again confiscated the opponent's shot.

A minute later, Mourinho made an immediate substitution.

Baba Rahman came off the bench and Ivanovic, who had just been out of position, was replaced.

This season, Ivan has completely turned into a nerve knife, and he is very consistent when he is good, but once he makes a mistake, it is a fatal mistake.

In the 69th minute, Yedlin crossed from the right.

Mikel's poor interception deflected the ball slightly.

The ball fell to Defoe.

From 14 yards out, Cesar Azpilicueta flew up to intercept Defoe, but he was too late.

Defoe calmly stopped the ball and fired a powerful right-footed shot into the bottom left corner of the goal.

The ball is fast and dangerous.

Thankfully, Jose was prepared and fell to the ground to save the ball.

In the 87th minute, Terry got into an altercation with Caboul, and both received yellow cards at the same time.

A minute later, Willian took a direct free-kick from the right side of the arc island.

The ball goes around the wall and flies into the top left corner.

Unfortunately, it was lifted above the beam by Mannone.

With four minutes of stoppage time, Sunderland did not give up their chances.

In the 94th minute, Defoe stopped the ball in the midfield.

Terry flew behind his back and put the shovel down, directly knocking down Defoe.

Very unnecessary foul moves.

Both fell to the ground at the same time.

"Beep, beep~" The referee blew the whistle for the foul as soon as possible.

Two yellows turn into one red.

In the closing stages, John Terry was sent off with a red card.

When he walked off the field, Terry was expressionless, and no one knew what he was thinking at this moment.

Because of John Terry's red card, Chelsea have accumulated five red cards this season, and the number of red cards is only six fewer than Southampton's among the 20 teams in the Premier League.

The 5 red cards in a single season are also the most red cards in the past 5 seasons.

In the end, Chelsea won 2-0 at Sunderland.

With relegation rivals Newcastle United and Norwich City both failing to win, Sunderland remain in 17th place after the defeat.

As for Chelsea rivals Leicester City, they thrashed Everton 3-1 at home.

Jamie Vardy opened the scoring after five minutes before Andy King doubled his lead.

In the 65th minute of the second half, Jamie Vardy created a penalty and scored it himself to seal the win early.

In the 72nd minute, Leicester City were awarded another penalty opportunity, and Vardy took the penalty and missed a hat-trick opportunity.

Just before the break, Mirallas scored a face-saving goal for Everton.

At the end of this round, Chelsea and Leicester City will still have the same number of points, but Chelsea have played one game less.

As the championship race heats up, fans have a heated discussion about the ownership of the championship.

Surprisingly, the number of fans supporting Leicester City to win the title was much greater than the number of fans supporting Chelsea to win the title.

I don't know when it started, a large number of Leicester City fans for 30 years appeared on the Internet.

For these Leicester City fans who suddenly appeared, Leicester City local fans said that they didn't know any of them.

Of course, fans support Leicester City to win the championship, naturally hoping that the civilian counterattack can become a reality.

You don't see those giant teams, relying on their status and money ability, they can easily recruit all kinds of top players, so that those mid-stream teams can only send them the talents they have cultivated in order to survive.

Fans are hoping that Leicester City will be the one to break the monopoly of the giants.

Three days later, at 03:00 China time on May 12 (20:00 local time on the 11th in the UK), the 30th round of the 2015/16 Premier League season, the make-up match between Liverpool and Chelsea was contested at Anfield Stadium.

John Terry is suspended and Baba Rahman, Traore and Pedro rotate.

The specific list is as follows.

Goalkeeper: Jose.

Defenders: Baba Rahman, John Stones, Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta.

Midfielders: Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fabregas, Willian.

Forwards: Hazard, Bertrand Traore, Pedro.

Liverpool played with an all-out squad and rotated nine players compared to the previous game, with only Coutinho and Moreno continuing to start, as follows.

Goalkeeper: Mignolet.

Defenders: Alberto Moreno, Lovren, Chloe Toure, Klein.

Midfielders: Coutinho, Emre Can, Milner, Lallana.

Forwards: Sturridge, Firmino.

(End of chapter)