Sunderland host Chelsea today at 16:00 Bulgarian time in a match from the 10th round of the Premier League. The game at the „Stadium of Light“ kicks off at 14:00 GMT and is the final match for both teams before the international break.
Chelsea go into the match in fourth place with 16 points after the first nine rounds. The London side won their last league match 2:0 against Manchester United and could move up to third place with another victory if Brighton fail to beat Brentford. This is stated in Chelsea’s pre-match analysis.
Sunderland are bottom of the table, two points from safety. The team have not won in the league since August and have lost five of their last six Premier League matches. On Thursday, the side lost 0:2 at home to Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League, with manager Régis Le Bris rotating six players who had started in the 1:3 defeat to Coventry.
Squad problems
Chelsea will be without João Pedro, Jorrel Hato and Maxence Lacroix until the end of the upcoming international break. The involvement of Moisés Caicedo and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez will be decided after the final training session before the match. Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso said that Martínez is training well, but the final decision will be made on the day of the game.
For the hosts, Nordi Mukiele could return to the starting lineup after a brief absence. Sunderland will also count on home advantage after securing two 2:1 victories over Chelsea last season — at „Stamford Bridge“ and at the „Stadium of Light“.
„We will give the best version of Sunderland to beat Chelsea. The opponent are strong. It will be a big challenge, but these are exactly the kind of matches we like“, Régis Le Bris said before the game.The match was moved from its originally scheduled date of 7 November because of Sunderland’s participation in the Europa League on Thursday. After the international break, Sunderland will visit Aston Villa, while Chelsea will host Leeds on 21 November.
Sources: skysports.com, theguardian.com, tntsports.co.uk