Sunderland agreed to help give Terry his controversial Bridge send-off
John Terry got the send-off he wanted, Chelsea got their hands on the Premier League trophy and Thibaut Courtois and César Azpilicueta achieved their personal milestones. This was a day for those inside Stamford Bridge and to hell with the cynics outside.
Champions Chelsea comfortably secured a record 30th League win of the season against relegated Sunderland, but the game was largely a sideshow to the pre-planned party.
Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford agreed to punt the ball out of play in the 26th minute, so that Chelsea could form a guard of honour for their No26, Terry, to be replaced by Gary Cahill.
Purists will be complaining of the final game of the season descending into farce, but Chelsea’s supporters loved every minute. Having lifted the Premier League trophy with Cahill, Terry was given the microphone. “You’ve given me everything from day one, when I first started out,” said Terry, who had his wife Toni and his children on the pitch. “You picked me up when I was down, sung my name when I’ve had bad days and disappointed you as well. Thank you will never ever be enough, but I’ll tell you what: I’ll be back here one day.”
After Sunderland manager David Moyes had confirmed that Pickford had acted on the request of Diego Costa to kick the ball out and let Terry have his moment, Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte said: “The guy is a legend for this club. He helped me a lot this season, on and off the pitch.”
What was not in the script for Chelsea was Sunderland taking a shock lead in just the third minute, courtesy of Javier Manquillo. But the home side quickly hit back through Willian before Terry went off and then coasted to victory with second-half goals from Eden Hazard, his replacement Pedro and two from substitute Michy Batshuayi.
Azpilicueta completed 90 minutes, which meant the defender played every minute of every Premier League game for the champions, and goalkeeper Courtois won the Golden Glove award.
The only moments the celebratory atmosphere was briefly interrupted surrounded Costa. He was booked after elbowing John O’shea and then holding his own face, and was clearly annoyed when Conte decided to replace him with Batshuayi with half-an-hour remaining. Costa waved to each side of Stamford Bridge as he left the pitch and it remains to be seen whether or not the gesture was intended as a goodbye of his own.
Rather than travelling back with his squad, Moyes was due to stay in London for a meeting with Sunderland owner Ellis Short today and was non-committal on his future.