Chelsea will start their attempted recovery after Jose Mourinho with a home match against Sunderland on Saturday. The two teams are separated by just three points in the premier League table, whoever loses will most likely be in the relegation zone. Last season the Blues beat Sunderland 3-1 at Stamford Bridge after Steven Fletcher had opened the scoring. In November Sunderland held Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at the Stadium of Light. Chelsea have won 18 of the last 21 league matches against the Black Cats.
Jose Mourinho got sacked on Thursday, Guus Hiddink will probably be his replacement on a temporary or permanent basis. The Portuguese manager got canned just seven month after lifting the Premier League title as he has led Chelsea to nine defeats out of 16 league matches this season. On Monday night Chelsea were defeated 2-1 by current league leaders Leicester City, leaving the Blues with just one win out of their last seven league matches. Eden Hazard should be fit despite having picked up a knock on Monday night, if he won't be available then Pedro should take his place.
Sunderland are facing another season of struggle at the bottom of the table, but they have seen signs of improvement after replacing manager Dick Advocaat with Sam Allardyce. Their defence seems more solid under the new boss but they still lost five of their last eight matches. Moreover, they face Manchester City and Liverpool before the end of the year, so they must grab any point they can get during this festive period. The Black Cats are in better form than Chelsea though, they have picked up more points than their illustrious opponents since the start of October. Sebastian Larsson and Lee Cattermole will miss out through injury.
Probable line-ups:
Chelsea: Courtois - Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta - Fabregas, Matic, Willian, Oscar, Hazard - Costa
Sunderland: Pantilimon - Coates, O'Shea, Kaboul - Yedlin, M'Vila, Toivonen, Van Aanholt - Borini, Defoe, Watmore
My prediction: Chelsea to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Chelsea win - 1.33 Draw - 5.50 Sunderland win - 11.00
Shumar4life
8 years ago
Mourinho was problem for this team. Chelsea played very well in first match withouth him, some players like Ivanovic did great job, and played the best match in this season. I believe that they will show their real class in upcoming matches, and at the end of season they will get their Champions league spot, without any...
Mourinho was problem for this team. Chelsea played very well in first match withouth him, some players like Ivanovic did great job, and played the best match in this season. I believe that they will show their real class in upcoming matches, and at the end of season they will get their Champions league spot, without any doubt
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sharpe
8 years ago
Sunderland will be a perfect opponent for Chelsea after all the noise around the club lately, a perfect opportunity for the Blues to recover part of their confidence with a victory. Sunderland really struggling in the season so far and like every season will be involved in the relegation battle till the end of season....
Sunderland will be a perfect opponent for Chelsea after all the noise around the club lately, a perfect opportunity for the Blues to recover part of their confidence with a victory. Sunderland really struggling in the season so far and like every season will be involved in the relegation battle till the end of season. I think Chelsea will win that one no matter who will lead the team from the bench.
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