Chelsea were disappointing and Diego Costa was lucky not to see red, says Ruud Gullit

Ruud Gullit says Chelsea should be disappointed with their display after a 0-0 draw against Sunderland on Saturday Night Football.

The Blues struggled to break down a resilient Black Cats side and at times looked short of ideas in the final third.

While manager Jose Mourinho said he was content with the point, former Chelsea player Gullit was not as impressed by the Blues’ display.

“They have to be disappointed with their own performance, especially tactically,” he said on Saturday Night Football. “Everybody was inside all game and it was exactly what Sunderland wanted, it was easy for them.

“Of course they had to make an effort and be disciplined but you can’t say to Sunderland, 'you have to play attacking football', because they are not as good as Chelsea.

“Chelsea were slow-paced, with no width at all and only six attempts on target. Perhaps because they played three times in a week they could have been a bit tired.”

The draw sees unbeaten Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points, although that could be cut when second-placed Southampton host Manchester City on Super Sunday.

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Next up for the Blues is a home match against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday evening, when they will be without Diego Costa after he picked up his fifth booking of the season against Sunderland.

The striker was shown a yellow card for catching Wes Brown with his arm as the two players went up for a header and Gullit believes he was fortunate not to have seen red.

“He was lucky to get away with it,” he said. “You can interpret it two ways – That he is unfortunate because he swings his arm out, (or) if he did it on purpose it was very clever to do it in this way.

Chelsea were slow paced, with no width at all and only six attempts on target

“You can see he is frustrated, that comes because everybody played in the middle of the park, he had no room and no shots at goal because everybody was around him and he didn’t know where to go.

"He got away with it, but it’s the frustration of what happened and I think it’s a great compliment to what Sunderland did while tactically it was not very clever from Chelsea.”

At the heart of Sunderland’s solid defensive display was man of the match Lee Cattermole, who put in a brilliant performance in front of the back four.

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet said he plays the defensive midfielder role to "perfection" and Gullit was full of praise for the 26-year-old.

“He’s the little piece of the jigsaw that you need to let the others be creative,” he said. “He is like a policeman in midfield, he makes sure of the runs and fills the holes. All the passes through the middle he was intercepting and you need a player like that in your team.”