Mikel: 'We stopped a little and they scored the second goal'

Saturday's game was turned on its head in the matter of just a few second half minutes, as first Fabio Borini grabbed an equalizer, then Jermain Defoe scored the winner for Sunderland in just about the next passage of play.  The two players most likely to score against Chelsea scoring against Chelsea is perhaps not all that surprising — Borini seems to always do so against his former club (four in a row now), while Defoe's having a throwback season to when he was a much younger man — but the manner in which we conceded them, the lapses of concentration and just general poor play at the back was galling even for this wretched season.

"We started the game well and for the first 30 to 35 minutes we had control and we were playing well. We were creating chances, moving the ball quickly and players wanted to get involved. In the second half we came out and we wanted to carry on where left off but we didn't kill the game when we had the chances to do it."

"Then Ivanovic went down, the referee didn't blow the whistle, we stopped a little and they scored the second goal. From then, they had some momentum, they built on that and got the third goal."

-John Obi Mikel; source: Chelsea FC

I find that last bit especially annoying — "we stopped a little" — not just in the context of this game, but as a general occurrence in football.  Referees only stop play for head injuries.  Everyone knows this.  The other team won't kick the ball out for you just out of the goodness of their hearts, especially when they're fighting to avoid relegation.  You play to the whistle.  Every.  Time.

Sure, we should have won.  If Costa scores either of his two great chances, we probably would've won.  But we also would've won had we not given up three goals to Sunderland (SUNDERLAND!), a team that hadn't scored a goal at the Stadium of Light since March 1st.

Two more games.