Strongest Chelsea Line-up To Face Sunderland: Mata And Lampard Back In The Team?By Dinesh on December 3, 2013@https://twitter.com/dineshintwitTweet Prev1 of 2Next Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse Jose Mourinho under pressure at Madrid Chelsea will travel to the Stadium of lights on Wednesday night to face Sunderland as they look to build on their win against Southampton last weekend. The Blues have just managed to win 2 out of their six away matches, but 3 points against a lowly Sunderland side would mean that they can maintain the pressure at the top of the table. Meanwhile former Chelsea player himself, Gus Poyet will be hoping to get one over his former team. Sunderland picked up a point against Aston Villa last week and the same result would give a world of confidence for the Black Cats. Having dropped crucial points against Newcastle and West Brom the Blues picked 3 points against Southampton but there lies a sense of vulnerability within the team as Jose Mourinho is yet to find his perfect XI. Against the Saints, Mourinho opted out Lampard and started Essien which turned out to be a blunder as the Ghanian gifted the away team the opening goal, which meant that Chelsea had to come from behind to win the game. So this time around as one would expect Essien might find his place on the bench. Chelsea are 4 points adrift of Arsenal and breathing down their neck sitting firmly at second place and cannot afford further slip-ups as they enter the crucial December month where games would come thick and fast. While there has been plenty of talk about the starting XI and the best formation that Mourinho should deploy, there has not been many answers to it.
Sod them. A nice chilly night in the NE with a 600-mile round trip is just what their players thrive on. Get in their faces early doors and show the Nancy boys what proper footy's all about! We'll probably still lose, like, but at least it'll be fun...
5 or 6 weeks ago teams like Chelsea would have happily rested their better players and played a second string against us, still firmly in the knowledge and belief they would win anyway. That's totally changed now IMO. Its testimony to just how far we have come under Gus in only a few weeks that no team now, including Chelsea, City and Spurs on Saturday, take us lightly. It also tells me that they also believe we DO have the team/squad to get out of the mess we are currently in and need to be at full strength to beat us. I'm not saying all of a sudden we will be beating the likes of Chelsea for one minute but I fully expect a good show and full commitment. I also like the way we are trying to play football at the minute and that's a huge improvement over the past few months too.
