Chelsea host Sunderland on Saturday with momentum behind the home side and questions around availability across both squads. Chelsea arrive on a winning run that has lifted them to fifth in the table; they could finish the weekend as high as second only if a series of unlikely results fall their way. The Blues are still searching for a first league victory over Sunderland since their last meeting in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sunderland have made an encouraging start to life back in the top flight. The newly promoted side sit level on points with Chelsea and have been beaten only twice in the Premier League, both defeats coming away from home. Their away numbers are notable: just one goal in four league trips so far.<\/p>\n
Injuries and suspensions will shape selection. Cole Palmer is absent with a return pencilled in for after the November international break. Levi Colwill and Liam Delap are long-term absentees. Beno\u00eet Badiashile will be missing until December after suffering another injury setback before the October international period, joining D\u00e1rio Essugo in the treatment room. Mykhailo Mudryk is serving a provisional suspension after failing a drugs test. Malo Gusto is suspended following a late red card at the City Ground. Jo\u00e3o Pedro served a one-match European ban midweek but is available for the weekend.<\/p>\n
Enzo Maresca rotated his squad for the midweek Ajax tie, resting Robert S\u00e1nchez, Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Pedro Neto.<\/p>\n
R\u00e9gis Le Bris is expected to make few changes after the win over Wolves but will be without Omar Alderete due to concussion. Habib Diarra, Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle, Leo Hjelde and Aji Alese remain in the treatment room. Reinildo returns from a three-match suspension.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Robin Roefs has been a key signing for Sunderland since last summer, while Wilson Isidor will lead the line. Bertrand Traor\u00e9 might be omitted after a subdued display against Wolves.<\/p>\n
Chelsea predicted lineup vs. Sunderland (4-2-3-1): S\u00e1nchez; James, Acheampong, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Lavia; Neto, Fern\u00e1ndez, Garnacho; Pedro.<\/p>\n
Sunderland predicted lineup vs. Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Roefs; Hume, Ballard, Mukiele, Reinildo; Xhaka, Sadiki; Adingra, Rigg, Le F\u00e9e; Isidor.<\/p>\n
Broadcast: United Kingdom not televised (audio on BBC Radio 5 Live & talkSPORT); United States Peacock and Amazon Prime Video; Canada DAZN, fuboTV and Amazon Prime Video; Mexico Max Mexico, Amazon Prime Video, TNT Sports and TNT Go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea aim to extend their winning run as in-form Sunderland visit with injuries shaping teams play<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172,689],"tags":[1162,1129,319],"class_list":["post-4012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","category-sunderland","tag-analytics","tag-benoit-badiashile","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}