It will be the Blues’ first appearance in this time slot since our 4-3 beating of Brighton & Hove Albion and is a consequence of the Black Cats’ UEFA Europa League involvement on Thursday.

Ebullient when Chelsea lost 2-1 there in May, Sunderland supporters are nervy in November, with five losses in six league outings and no three-point haul since August.

As the final international break of 2026 looms, they lie bottom of the Premier League pile, two points from safety with the second-worst goal difference in the division.

For their Europa League game in midweek, Regis Le Bris rotated six of the 11 who started last weekend’s 3-1 loss to fellow relegation fighters Coventry City. Previously unbeaten in the competition, they lost 2-0 at home to Dinamo Zagreb.

Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso’s team had a free midweek to rest and prepare, following Saturday's second-half 2-0 dismantling of Manchester United, and will rise to third with a win on Wearside, should Brighton fail to beat Brentford.

Team news

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Alonso revealed that he will make a late decision on Sunday to determine if Moises Caicedo and Emiliano Martinez have recovered sufficiently to feature against Sunderland. Jorrel Hato, Maxence Lacroix and Joao Pedro remain unavailable until at least the end of the forthcoming international break.

‘On Saturday we have our last training session before Sunday and we will decide,' Alonso replied when asked about Martinez. 'But he is training well. It is very good that Emi has made a great effort to be back and is ahead of the plan to be part of the team. So we will check and then on Sunday we will take the final decision.

‘Moi had little problems after the last game, so we expect to check on Saturday on different situations and he is one of them.'

The history

It may surprise Chelsea fans scarred by historic cup losses at Sunderland to hear that the Blues have a decent league record there. We have won 34 per cent of our 61 trips to this part of the North-East, just four fewer than our 38 per cent success rate at Tottenham Hotspur.

Even before Roker Park closed its turnstiles in 1997, Chelsea had enjoyed sporadic success there, including a classic 2-0 victory in which Mickey Thomas scored from the spot soon after the restart and Kerry Dixon sealed the points late on. That was the first time we had ever won at Roker by two or more goals and remains our joint-biggest margin of victory at Sunderland.

A run of just one top-flight defeat and no draws against the Black Cats between 2002 and 2013 weighs in heavily on that wins statistic, and the sole loss in that run came at Stamford Bridge. The spree of nine straight wins at the Stadium of Light included two memorably high-scoring clashes.

A goalless first half did not foretell what was to happen after the break there on the last day of the 2008/09 season, a week before Guus Hiddink’s men would beat Everton in the FA Cup final. Nicolas Anelka broke the deadlock early in the second half with a spectacular drive from distance (to secure the Golden Boot), before Kieran Richardson made Petr Cech pay for a rare mishandling.

The game swung again when Salomon Kalou lashed into the corner and Ashley Cole netted his second for the club to make it 3-1. In the last minute, Kenwyne Jones pulled another one back for the relegation-threatened Wearsiders, and news filtered through that Newcastle United had lost to Aston Villa and would suffer the drop instead.

Two years later, in February 2011, Phil Bardsley’s solo effort struck an early blow for the hosts, but minutes later Ahmed Elmohamady fouled Cole and Frank Lampard equalised from 12 yards. Anelka then pounced on a loose ball to feed Kalou, who edged Carlo Ancelotti’s defending champions ahead for the first time.

The Black Cats kept scrapping and Richardson fired a free-kick through the Blues’ wall to send the two teams in level at the break. Chelsea continued to pepper Craig Gordon’s goal and when the keeper parried Lampard’s lashed shot, John Terry forced it home. Before the final whistle, Anelka struck to seal an impressive 4-2 victory.

Our most recent win at the home of the Mackems came in mid-December 2016, under Antonio Conte. The league leaders remained top over Christmas for the fifth time in the Premier League, thanks to Cesc Fabregas’ swept finish.

Know this…

Following his success against Manchester United, Cole Palmer has scored 19 of his 21 Premier League penalties for Chelsea. Only Frank Lampard (41 from 48) has managed a higher total.

Romeo Lavia won possession 14 times during Saturday’s win, the most by any Chelsea player in a Premier League game since Lewis Hall against Fulham in January 2023 (also 14).

Alonso’s side are outperforming the expected goals (13.34) metric by +5.56 (19 goals), the second best in the Premier League, while Sunderland are underperforming theirs (13.21) by -6.21, the second-worst performers.

Chelsea have won 54.7 per cent of ground duels, the highest rate in the top flight.

Only five teams have a lower pass completion rate this season than Sunderland (78.8 per cent).

Chelsea (six) have found the net more times from set-plays in the league than any rival except Brighton (seven).

The Blues (53) have managed the most shots on target in the Premier League, but also sustained the most by opponents (50).

The Black Cats have not won at home in the top flight on this date since 1932, when they beat Grimsby 3-2.

A year earlier, in a 2-0 defeat at Roker Park, Chelsea fielded our oldest-ever starting XI, averaging 31 years and 336 days.