Chelsea vs Sunderland Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Predicted Score

Life without Jose Mourinho will start on Saturday afternoon for Chelsea as they entertain Sunderland at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho was sensationally sacked on Thursday afternoon by owner Roman Abramovich after steering the Blues to their worst start to a season in over 40 years.

Monday’s loss at Leicester City was their eighth defeat of the season already and leaves Chelsea sitting 16th in the Premier League table and just a point above the relegation zone so the so-called ‘Special One’ ultimately paid the price for their disastrous title defence.

Guus Hiddink is reportedly in talks over taking over until the end of the season but nothing official has been announced as yet so Steve Holland is set to be in the dugout tomorrow afternoon.

Sunderland arrive in the capital looking to inflict yet more misery on Chelsea but they come in to the game sitting 19th in the division despite Sam Allardyce’s excellent start to life at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats have climbed off the foot of the table since his arrival and have actually won more points than Chelsea since the start of October so I’m sure Allardyce will be quietly confident of picking up a positive result tomorrow.

Back Chelsea to win at odds of 3/1 + money back if you lose

Team news

All eyes will be on Eden Hazard to see if he’s passed fit to start after asking to be substituted against Leicester on Monday night following an innocuous fall. Mourinho appeared to question whether the attacker was genuinely injured after the game and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him line-up tomorrow.

Radamel Falcao is back in training after recovering from a muscle injury so he could return to the squad while Cesc Fabregas is in line for a recall after being dropped last time out.

Sunderland will have to make do without the services of Lee Cattermole are he continues to nurse a long-standing back injury while Sebastian Larsson is at least two weeks from a return with a knee problem.

However, Sebastian Coates is expected to recover from illness to take his place in defence.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Chelsea 2-0 Sunderland: There is no doubt some of the Chelsea players haven’t been giving their all under Mourinho in recent weeks and I wouldn’t be surprised if they suddenly found their form again now he’s been sacked. It may take them some time to find their rhythm again but I think Chelsea will ease to a 2-0 win.

Betting Tips

Chelsea are the 1/3 favourites to win the game but Football-Talk can get you enhanced odds of 3/1 on a Blues victory – just click here to take advantage. My prediction of 2-0 is on offer at 5/1 and I also like the look of Diego Costa opening the scoring at odds of 16/5. If you combined those two bets in a score-cast then we get very tempting odds of 11/1.

Back Chelsea to win at odds of 3/1 + money back if you lose

What do you think? What line-up would you like to see start?