Chelsea has been one of the stronger clubs in the Premier League this season and on Tuesday they will play against Sunderland in the Capital One Cup and it will be the second time the teams are facing off since a win by the Blues in early December in the Barclays and it comes after a nice EPL win over the weekend and the match will be at the Stadium of Light and streaming at 7:45 pm on beIN Sport Play.
The Blues are now third in the Premier League table after winning against Crystal Palace on Saturday and Sunderland comes in at the bottom of the table, but this is the Capital One Cup and the EPL standings don't matter on the pitch. The club has to pull its way out of the bottom of the EPL and the Black Cats will need a wildly good performance on Tuesday to win against Chelsea and they need to get on the right track to avoid falling out of the league at the end of the season. The semi-finals are waiting next and the two teams come in at direct opposite directions, but the first time the two teams played the Blues needed a maximum effort to erase a deficit and manager Jose Mourinho said that his club would not underestimate Sunderland. The extra play will give Chelsea a chance to work on the rotation and there is a chance that John Terry could be out for the match.
Check here for the Chelsea and Sunderland live coverage.
According to ESPNFC.com, Ashley Cole will be on the left and Branislav Ivanovic is suspended and the other semi-finals match on the day has Leicester City and Manchester City while Stoke City and Manchester United play on Wednesday. Chelsea still has tough games ahead in the Premier League and they are two points behind Arsenal heading into next week's games and with the busy holiday schedule coming up, the Blues have to prepare for a matchup with the Gunners on the road away from Stamford Bridge and that will be two days before Christmas at Emirates Stadium. Chelsea played a solid game on Saturday with a 2-1 victory against Crystal Palace and they got goals from Fernando Torres and Ramires to get the victory, while Sunderland played a scoreless tie with West Ham United. Chelsea won over the Black Cats already in a 4-3 win at the Stadium of Light and now they will get another chance for a victory.
Mourinho has played down Chelsea's chances of winning silverware this season, because they lack a killer "selfish" striker.
The London side missed a series of scoring chances in their 2-1 win over strugglers Crystal Palace on Saturday but still moved within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, whom they meet on December 23.
"I don't think we are the big contenders of any competition," Mourinho told BBC radio.
"We don't have the striker who is going to score 30 goals in the league."
Chelsea's 50 million pound ($81.39 million) striker Fernando Torres scored his second league goal of the season on Saturday. He and fellow strikers Demba Ba and Samuel Eto'o have contributed only five of Chelsea's 32 Premier League goals so far.
Belgian attacking midfielder Eden Hazard is top league scorer with six.
"We don't have that striker we used to call the killer, the selfish one, the one that gives the last touch," Mourinho said.
On Friday Mourinho said his strikers' hard work helped the attacking midfielders to get on the scoresheet but he and they were frustrated by their lack of finish.
"The number of goals is quite frustrating not just for me but also for them," he had said after training.
"Do I expect a little bit more? Yes. Do we want them to do a little more? Yes."
Mourinho repeated after Saturday's game that he did not expect to buy a striker in the January transfer window as there were unlikely to be any good ones available.
"They are in the big clubs, they are in the clubs with big ambitions and big clubs with big ambitions don't sell their top selfish ones," he said. (Reuters)