Who: Chelsea FC vs. Sunderland FCWhat: English Premier League Matchweek 32Where: Stamford Bridge, London, England, UKWhen: Sunday, April 7, 2013Weather: The Weather ChannelTime: 15:00 GMT/10:00 a.m. ET/7:00 a.m. PTTelevision: Fox Soccer Plus, FOX Soccer 2Go (USA)Worldwide Live Streams and TV Channels: LiveSoccerTV.comRadio: SiriusXM (SiriusXM channel 94) Internet channel 94, TalkSport Radio (US), BBC Radio 5 Live (UK)Referee: Neil Swarbrick
3-Way Odds: Chelsea -400, Sunderland +850, Draw +350Total: Over 2½ -140, Under 2½ +120Decimal Odds: Chelsea 1.25, Sunderland 9.50, Draw 4.50Decimal Total: Over 2½ 1.67, Under 2½ 2.20Fractional Odds: Chelsea 1/4, Sunderland 17/2, Draw 7/2Fractional Total: Over 2½ 67/100, Under 2½ 6/5Source: Bovada (Kahnawake, Canada)
Chelsea will be looking for nothing less than a win and three points in this home fixture against Sunderland on Sunday who will likely be happy just to earn a draw and a point as it lives dangerously near the border of Relegation Street heading into the last weeks of the season.
The 16th-place Black Cats (7-10-14) enter this weekend's action just one point ahead of both 17th-place Wigan Athletic and 18th-place Aston Villa (31-30-30) and the dreaded relegation zone in the English Premier League.
Sunderland sacked manager Martin O'Neill and brought in Paolo Di Canio to see if the 44-year-old Italian can save the day at the Stadium of Light as the Black Cats will look to do everything possible to try to stay up with a new manager and an injured roster.
The club's leading scorer in the Premier League, Steven Fletcher (11 goals) is one of those Sunderland players out for season for the season as are Wes Brown and Lee Cattermole while David Vaughn (groin) and Carlos Cuéllar (ankle) are both also expected to miss Sunday's clash with the defending FA Cup champions.
The Blacks Cats will look to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet (9 clean sheets) and midfielder Adam Johnson (4 goals, team-leading 5 assists) for leadership but Sunderland is somewhat anemic on offense with the fourth-least number of goals in the top flight (33) and only one player with more than two assists in league play (Johnson).
Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet looks on helplessly as Chelsea's Dernando Torres scores for the Blues in December at the Stadium of Light.Paul Thomas/Getty Images
Although fourth-place Chelsea (16-7-7) will be playing its fourth match in nine days, the European champions are fairly deep and should be more than healthy enough to handle the task at hand against Sunderland which has lost its last three away from the Stadium of Light.
When these two met at the Stadium of Light in December, Chelsea rolled to a 3-1 win as Fernando Torres scored twice for the Blues. Torres—who now leads the club in scoring in all competitions with 19 goals—will likely start this match against Sunderland on the bench as Chelsea's other striker Demba Ba is cup-tied in the Europa League and will undoubtedly get the call for the Blues in this one.
The Blues do have some injury woes of their own headed in with defenders Ashley Cole and Gary Cahill both out at least two more weeks and midfielder Oriol Romeu out for the season so expect César Azpilicueta, Branislav Ivanović, John Terry, Ryan Bertrand, David Luiz and even Paulo Ferreira to be worked heavily over the next fortnight.
After going with Yossi Benayoun and Victor Moses in his starting XI in Thursday's first-leg, 3-1 win over Rubin Kazan in West London, expect Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benítez to start the Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar "Mazacar" line in the advanced midfield with John Obi Mikel and either Ramires or Frank Lampard in the central midfield.
Chelsea vice captian knows Eden Hazard, Juan Mata and Cesar Azpilicueta have been pretty good when all on the pitch together for the Blues this season.Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
This game will be the Blues third straight at home and Chelsea has gone 4-1-1 (12-6 goals) overs its last six in all competitions as it fights for a top-four finish in the Premier League, a Europa League championship and a repeat of its FA Cup win last year.
Chelsea enters the weekend just two points behind third-place Tottenham-Hotspur in the standings (57-55) and two ahead of fifth-place Arsenal (53), but the Blues will still have a game in hand over Spurs (31-32) after this weekend due to a rescheduled game at Fulham (April 17) due to FA Cup participation.
Between that game and this one against Sunderland, Chelsea has dates in Moscow and across Londontown as it plays Rubin Kazan on Thursday in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-finals (Fox Soccer Channel, 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT) and then dance with defending EPL champions Manchester City at London's Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup semi-finals in a week on Sunday, April 14.
But first things first here and that will come will a confident and rested Blues squad finding a way to get the three points in a game it has to in a place it should and against an opponent it must defeat.
Chelsea has absolutely dominated this series of late, going 9-0-1 over their last 10 against the Black Cats and has won 15 of the last 16 meetings, outscoring Sunderland by a robust 44-13 in the process.
The Blues should find a way to win this one and with goalkeeper Petr Čech continuing to lead the way and making at least one memorable save per game lately, it seems it's pretty much business as usual over at Stamford Bridge no matter what the latest headlines scream.
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