Sunderland vs. Chelsea - Match Preview

Sunderland vs. Chelsea match this afternoon in the big 3pm Premier League kick-off of the day at the Stadium of the Light? Chelsea have failed to score in two successive away games (opening game against Stoke and a tail ender last season against Everton) whilst Sunderland have only scored once this season (including an impotent almost full strength squad in the League cup at Brighton) with star striker Asamoah Gyan under-performing and this week having his head turned by putting in a transfer request for a move to Turkey by 'parasite agents' as Steve Bruce called them, offering him bigger wages. In the end Gyan stayed but he is ruled out today through injury, not because of the parasite bites, but a hamstring pull during International duty with Ghana. Although 0-0 seems a big possibility, neutrals watching the game on Match of the Day tonight might be able to take some solace in the fact that the Black Cats made a canny loan signing with minutes to go in the transfer window on Wednesday night by bringing in unsettled Arsenal striker Nicklas Bentdner who at 23 has bags of international goals for Denmark and of course Champions League strikes against the likes of Barcelona and a hat trick against FC Porto! He plays his 100th Premier League game today and his first away from the turmoil at Arsenal and there's an expectation that if the likes of Sebastian Larsson and Jack Colback can give him the delivery he needs, he can become a real menace for opposition defences this season. Plus Chelsea's £100 million strikers including Fernando Torres who frequently looks like he is chasing the ghost of his former self, may for once do more than flatter to deceive and perhaps we could be in for a mouth-watering gult of goals this afternoon? Certainly the two encounters between the teams last season were entertaining affairs. Sunderland provided one of the shocks of the season when live on Sky Sports Super Sunday they embarrassed Chelsea on their own ground in a memorable 3-0 win, only to then go down battling in a match of real attacking flair when they lost at home 2-4 to Chelsea in a free scoring game when Nicolas Anelka looked like an absolute world beater. With Sunderland having an absolutely miserable 2011 (they were pushing for Europe at the turn of the calendar but then free-falled and nearly ended up crashing into the Championship... and they haven't started this year brightly with a home defeat against bitter rivals Newcastle United), pressure seems to be mounting on manager Steve Bruce whose mass summer buys have yet to shone, to at least put in a good show today and look like they might be in with a chance of winning the game. Though with Chelsea having won the last 12 of 13 meetings and scoring 38 goals in the process, I can only predict another match that will leave Bruce feeling the blues. Team news for today; Sunderland's defence (which hasn't at all been a problem this season) could be boosted by the return of Michael Turner after 10 months out through injury. He played in a reserve game this week unscathed but may not be risked, though John O'Shea's injury for the Republic of Ireland mid-week and Anton Ferdinand's move to QPR may mean he has to step in at some stage as he will be the only centre back cover to starters Titus Bramble and Wes Brown. Sessegnon will likely sit just behind Bendtner with Gyan out, or perhaps Bruce might give the nod to big summer signing Connor Wickham? Knee injuries keep Craig Gordon, Fraizer Campbell and David Meyler on the injured list. For Chelsea, Petr Cech should be back in goal and new signing Raul Meireles should make his Blues debut at some stage whilst Andre Villas-Boas will have to decide which of the many strikers he starts today but presumably he can't NOT play Anelka after his display at the ground last season and looking sharper than Torres. Frank Lampard will no doubt be in the hunt for goals to silence those who are saying he's getting close to being past his best and David Luiz should start after recovering from a thigh complaint. Impressive Daniel Sturridge will return to the bench at a 3 match suspension. Sunderland (from): Mignolet, Westwood, Bardsley, Brown, Richardson, Turner, Bramble, Laing, Cattermole, Gardner, Vaughan, Colback, Elmohamady, Bendtner, Sessegnon, Wickham, Ji, Cook. Chelsea (from): Cech, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Terry, Luiz, Alex, Cole, Mikel, Romeu, McEachran, Lampard, Ramires, Meireles, Mata, Malouda, Torres, Anelka, Sturridge, Kalou, Lukaku, Hilario. Having setup for a 0-0 draw earlier in this article I'm actually predicting a 3-1 Chelsea win today....