Reid for all the progress he has made might not boast the same strength in depth as Vialli who started with Dan

Reid, for all the progress he has made, might not boast the same strength in depth as Vialli, who started with Dan Petrescu and Bjarne Goldbaek alongside him on the bench yesterday, but the Sunderland manager has acquired and developed a wealth of cut- price talent. Eric Roy, a pounds 500,000 signing from Marseilles, might not have been allotted a midfield berth had McCann and Rae not been suspended, but the Frenchman made his presence, and his skills, felt immediately.Trapping a clearance from Dennis Wise some 25 yards from goal, he sidestepped round Jon Harley, jinked past Wise and delivered an angled ball to the six-yard line, where Quinn applied the scoring touch with a side-footed finish. The ground fairly erupted and the deafening noise did not abate until half-time. It was the hustling, high-tempo of Sunderland's play, though, that rattled Chelsea.Roy was the prompter-in-chief from central midfield but the pressure was applied from all angles. Quinn and Phillips, in perpetual motion, darted wide to play their quick-breaking colleagues through the middle.

That Cheslea were wobbling was evident on the quarter hour when Jes Hogh, under pressure from Quinn, fired a nervy backpass across the face of Ed de Goey's goal. And four minutes later Reid was out of his "technical area" in protest when Roy was sent sprawling on the left side of the area by Bernard Lambourde. It was a clear penalty, though in ignoring the appeals, Steve Dunn merely delayed the inevitable.It was the right foot of Phillips that brought the hammer down, in more than one respect. When Michael Gray's sweeping ball from deep on the left bounced up before him in the 23rd minute, the England striker swung his boot and dispatched a stunning volley that arched 25 yards into the right corner of the Chelsea net.Phillips' second goal, 12 minutes later, was more prosaic - a close-range poach after De Goey stretched to stop, but could not hold, a Quinn volley following another piercing Gray pass from the left.Five minutes before half-time Sunderland had settled their opening day score.

Nicky Summerbee's right-wing corner was deflected to the far side of the box, where Quinn sent a left-foot volley crashing past De Goey. It hit the net directly in front of the stunned Chelsea fans in the South Stand. It could, however, have been worse for them, the fired-up Phillips having been denied his hat-trick by De Goey's brilliant tip-over.Chelsea, without the suspended Frank Leboeuf, the injured Chris Sutton and the rested Didier Deschamps, did have their moments. Tore Andre Flo shot into the side-netting amid the first-half flurry and midway through the second-half the Norwegian managed to force a save from the seriously underemployed Thomas Sorensen.Sunderland's Danish goalkeeper was eventually beaten with nine minutes left, Gustavo Poyet converting Gianfranco Zola's low right-wing corner "Chelsea are back," the visiting supporters chanted Back among the Premiership's also-rans, that is.. COVENTRY'S long wait for their first away win of the season and Southampton's stumbling form continued at the Dell yesterday, but there are days when goalless draws and unfulfilled ambitions seem less important than value for money This was certainly one of those. Southampton had dealt their confidence another blow by losing 4-0 to Aston Villa in the Worthington Cup. That followed a defeat at Leeds which ended with the manager David Jones making an enraged verbal attack on the referee - usually the first sign of deferring responsibility.

He knew Southampton had not played all that badly in either match but were in danger of entertaining defeatist thoughts - not surprisingly after winning only one of their previous nine League matches, a record that cannot be blamed on referees. Coventry's unbeaten run of seven games had gone the week before and they were still hampered by away form, which was something they needed to correct quickly if those somewhat over-the-rainbow thoughts of a place in Europe were to turn to reality. Starting yesterday's game without David Burrows, Marc Edworthy, Marcus Hall and Richard Shaw gave no cause for optimism, though Southampton were hardly less denuded being without Trom Soltvedt, Mark Hughes and Claus Lundekvam.Coventry overcame their problems the quicker with Mustapha Hadji - one of three Moroccans on the pitch - having a dipping, well directed shot handed on to the crossbar by Paul Jones. Southampton needed to remain alert to Robbie Keane's pace and Hadji's shooting from any distance Keane began a sequence of near goals. He had a vigorous header cleared by Dean Richards who promptly joined a Southampton counter attack and struck the crossbar with an out-stretched foot as he encroached into the Coventry goal area. The miss was no worse than that of Hassan Kachloul who somehow got the ball lost under his body from Marian Pahars' centre with a goal seeming inevitable.There was not a paper's width between the teams.

A brave and painful save at the feet of James Beattie by Magnus Hedman deprived Southampton of what seemed certain to be an opening goal, but it simply added to the enjoyment of a match full of absorbing unpredictability. Only Hadji consistently looked capable of breaking the deadlock. His shooting was not always along the right lines, but he found space in a busy midfield and used it effectively. Much the same could be said of Southampton's Pahars but surprisingly he was substituted midway through a second half in which Paul Jones again rescued Southampton with a block from Cedric Roussel.Both goalkeepers contributed considerably to maintaining equality. In the last 15 minutes vitality left the game and originality, which had never been its strong point, withered.