The result at the Stadium of Light will offer illumination to clubs seeking the remaining UEFA places. It is one of many final-day games on which something significant is riding. In fact, only the top three Premier League clubs already know their finishing position.

The Blues returned to eighth in the table with Tuesday’s thunderous Stamford Bridge victory over Tottenham Hotspur, who remain locked in a relegation embrace with West Ham United as a result. Remarkably, one of those big London rivals will bid farewell to the top-flight on their own ground this weekend.

The Black Cats – who came from behind to beat hosts Everton at the weekend – are two places, one point and a goal-difference chasm below the world champions, but they claimed the spoils in the reverse fixture at the Bridge.

The Londoners have won 10, drawn two and lost only one of our 13 previous visits to Wearside in the Premier League.

The Blues will also hope to leapfrog seventh-placed Brighton & Hove Albion, who entertain Manchester United. Brentford, level on points with Chelsea, but ranked lower on goal difference, visit Anfield.

Team news

In the build-up to our trip to Sunderland, Calum McFarlane confirmed there are no fresh injury concerns after the midweek win over Tottenham, and revealed he is hopeful that Joao Pedro, Levi Colwill and Reece James could all return after sitting out the last game.

‘Joao and Levi both trained today and that’s really promising,’ McFarlane said in his pre-match press conference at Cobham on Friday.

‘We have another day of training tomorrow, so we will see how they are after that, but we’re hopeful they’ll both be fit for Sunday.’

‘Reece trained today and we’ll play it day by day with him. He’s fit and in a good condition, but we know that we’ve had to manage Reece correctly over the last few games.

‘He obviously played a lot of minutes in the [FA Cup] final, which was a tough game against a really good side, so it was going to take a lot out of him, so we didn’t want to risk him on Tuesday. We felt like we had enough to see the game out, which proved to be correct, and we’re hoping to have Reece available on Sunday.’

The history

Nine season-closing league fixtures in our history have been anxiety-free celebrations when the league title or promotion had already been won.

Those included 4-1 at home to Gainsborough in 1907, the 2-1 loss at Man United in 1955 (after football’s first guard of honour for the champions), 4-0 versus Hull City in 1977, 1-0 at Grimsby Town in 1984, 3-2 at Portsmouth in 1989, and 1-1 at Newcastle United in 2005.

On two other such occasions, the final-day visitors were this weekend’s hosts, Sunderland. The Blues had secured the title during Jose Mourinho’s second spell three weeks before the Wearsiders arrived on 24 May 2015.

Dick Advocaat’s men took the lead midway through the opening half, but Diego Costa equalised from the spot five minutes later. The second half saw the champions take control and Loic Remy scored twice to complete a 3-1 victory.

Two years later, on 21 May 2017, the Black Cats had already been relegated, but stole the lead at the Bridge in the third minute. The Londoners, crowned Premier League winners nine days earlier, responded in devastating fashion, again levelling after five minutes, this time through Willian.

The scores were still tied when John Terry was substituted in the 26th minute, his illustrious royal blue career drawing to a close amid on-field applause even from opponents and officials. Four more goals were notched by Antonio Conte’s team through Eden Hazard, Pedro and a last-gasp brace from Michy Batshuayi for a 5-1 win.

Chelsea have won game number 38 in nine of our past 14 seasons (drawn three, lost two).

In 2024, the late surge under Mauricio Pochettino finished with a 2-1 victory at home to Bournemouth, securing a top-six finish. Last season was even better – a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest claiming fourth place and a UEFA Champions League berth.

Know this...

A win for Chelsea on Sunday will all but guarantee either a UEFA Europa League or UEFA Conference League place, as Brentford would need to better our winning margin in their game against Liverpool by at least four to catch our superior goal difference.

A draw at the Stadium of Light would mean eighth place and a Conference League place, provided Brentford do not win at Anfield. Should Brighton drop points at home to Man Utd, and Brentford don't catch our goal difference, a win would see the Blues finish seventh and earn a ticket to the Europa League.

A loss would mean Sunderland and Brighton both finishing above us, and Chelsea missing out on a UEFA place next season altogether.

Sunderland have the lowest final-game win rate (one in 16) of any club to have played five or more seasons in the Premier League.

Tuesday’s league win was Chelsea’s sixth in a row against Tottenham Hotspur and the Blues are unbeaten in eight Premier League derby games, our best run in the capital since May 2015. The result also earned the world champions third league ‘double’ – all against bottom-four clubs.