No Granit Xhaka? No problem.

Sunderland could well have been preparing for Chelsea‘s visit to the Stadium of Light with their star midfielder of last season lining up on the other side after Xabi Alonso’s attempts to reunite with him in the summer. In the end, Sunderland stood firm, and although Xhaka hasn’t quite been the same player this season, he’s a player whose experience would in theory have come in handy on an afternoon like this.

No two ways about it, Sunderland have been up against it recently. Regis Le Bris has been hanging on to his job while his side have propped up the Premier League table. This was a game the hosts just needed a result from.

So imagine their concern when Xhaka went down a couple of minutes into the game, unable to play any further part. At least he wasn’t playing against them, as could have been the case, but not having him will have changed their game plan.

And yet, hang on they did. A penalty converted by Enzo Le Fee proved to be the difference in a physical, rough and tumble affair.

Whether that penalty should have been awarded in the first place was contentious. Levi Colwill was deemed to have hauled down Brian Brobbey, even though the big Sunderland striker initiated the contact first.

A handful throughout, Brobbey was front and centre of the more physical side of the game. Chelsea couldn’t contain him and he had a couple of chances of his own, failing to guide in a Chemsdine Talbi cross and also running through after a break but taking the ball too wide before getting his shot away.

Some finesse was lacking from Sunderland, but there was fight. They showed glimpses in the second half of their Europa League loss to Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday, but this was much more like it. Heading into the international break, it’s just what they – and Le Bris – needed.

As for Chelsea, they now go into the break with some questions hovering over them. It’s not quite clicking yet, with this their fourth Premier League defeat of the season. They would probably have expected to beat three of the teams they lost to as well.

They felt they could have had a penalty when Cole Palmer was upended by a combination of two Sunderland defenders, but VAR assured it was outside the box.

Instead, it took until the 45th minute for Chelsea to register their first shot on target. Pedro Neto’s effort was a comfortable save for Robin Roefs. A Morgan Rogers header that went wide after a Marco Palestra cross had been a bigger chance.

Xabi Alonso changed things up at the break, taking the booked Colwill off and dropping Moises Caicedo into a centre-back role, which was enough to raise some eyebrows. There was one occasion when Caicedo and actual centre-back partner Wesley Fofana got mixed up and it led to a Sunderland chance. A big one, too, with Mike Penders saving one on one against Wilson Isidor.

Chelsea even finished the game with Geovany Quenda, a winger or wing-back, playing at left-back. Sure, they were chasing the game, but should this be normal for a team who have invested so much money into their squad? We suspect not.

Quenda did get forward and had a decent chance towards the end, which swung wide via a deflection. But the balance was off and Chelsea were down and out.

Now they’re the ones with a fortnight of questions to hover over them. Alonso’s position is nowhere near as precarious as Le Bris’ would have been with a loss, but the Chelsea boss certainly has some things to work out over the break.