Chelsea have won nine league games in a row during a single season for the first time since Jose Mourinho’s first stint as manager at Stamford Bridge.
They were perhaps fortunate to come away with a 1-0 win over West Brom at the weekend but they are still three points clear at the top of the league nonetheless.
Sunderland looked to be on the right track before being thrashed 3-0 away to relegation rivals Swansea on Saturday. David Moyes’ side have still won three of their last five league games but that wasn’t an ideal result ahead of a tough run of fixtures. Naijabet.com
The Black Cats have won each of their last two at home and Moyes will be hoping to draw confidence from the fact they return to home soil for this midweek fixture.
Sunderland are unbeaten in their last two league games against Chelsea but aren’t expected to get anything from this fixture.
Team News
Sunderland – Didier Ndong is suspended for Wednesday’s clash with Chelsea after reaching five yellow cards for the season in their 3-0 defeat to Swansea last time out. Jan Kirchhoff is the most likely to deputise in his absence.
Fabio Borini is an option to face off against his former club, although he hasn’t featured since August and any involvement would usually come from the bench after such a long time sidelined through injury.
Paddy McNair, Lee Cattermole, Lynden Gooch and Duncan Watmore are long-term absentees, while Jack Rodwell is still injured.
Chelsea – Nemanja Matic, Pedro and Diego Costa all overcame minor injuries to feature in Chelsea’s 1-0 win against West Brom at the weekend and there are no fresh concerns for Antonio Conte ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Sunderland.
Conte suggested he would need to rotate his team over the festive period but it’s hard to see where any changes will need to be made. Willian and Cesc Fabregas are the obvious candidates to get game time here, whereas a lack of options at the back means David Luiz may have to continue playing through the pain in midweek.
Match Facts
Chelsea have won their last 9 matches in Premier League.
Sunderland have seen over 2.5 goals in 14 of their last 17 matches against Chelsea in all competitions.
There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 8 of Sunderland’s last 9 home Premier League games .
Chelsea have scored at least 2 goals in their last 3 matches against Sunderland in all competitions.
As at this post Sunderland has 9.47 odd to win the match on NaijaBet while Chelsea has 1.34 odd to win the match also, while the odd to draw the match is 5.37.