Match Preview: Chelsea v Sunderland — Tough Test In The Capital For The Lads!

SB Nation

Saturday 25th October 2025

Chelsea v Sunderland – Premier League

Stadium of Light Kick-Off: 15:00

Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets are sold out.

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is unavailable in the UK.

Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)

Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow

account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.sbnation.com!

The build-up…

If we’d been offered to go into our ninth league game of the season sitting 7th in the table, level on points with Spurs and today’s opponents Chelsea, while boasting the second best defensive record in the top flight along with Manchester City – I think we might have laughed that somebody might even have to ask if we’d take it or not.

We shouldn’t underestimate the start we’ve had to this season. Despite the questions raised around the fixture list, it will be interesting to see at the end of the season who takes fourteen points from the same set of fixtures as we’ve had in those first eight games.

The big news for Sunderland during the week was the confirmation that Omar Alderete is unavailable for today’s fixture and will be assessed ahead of the home game against Everton a week on Monday. But, on the bright side, Reinildo returns after suspension so the obvious change is that Reinildo replaces Alderete and Mukiele moves back into the middle, with Hume switching back to his more orthodox right side.

There are potentially bigger question marks over what options might be deployed in the middle of the park, with Regis Le Bris citing our first half experience at Old Trafford in his press conference during the week. The lessons taken from the 20-30 minute spell where we found ourselves under pressure may lead to us requiring to be a bit more solid down the flanks – an area that Le Bris admitted during the week that “needs development”.

I’m going to accidently get carried away for a second – but with Arsenal and Manchester City playing tomorrow – we can go a point ahead of Pep’s Blues and two behind the league leaders if we manage to collect all three points today. I doubt that will happen, but it’s not bad being able to say it’s possible.

We always think there’s never a dull day supporting Sunderland, but Chelsea seem like one of those clubs where there always seems to be something going off. Only last month, the Blues were charged by the Football Association with 74 alleged rule breaches between 2009 and 2022 – but if it’s anything like the Man City case, we might not see an outcome within the next decade.

If you listened to our conversation with The Athletic’s Chelsea reporter Simon Johnson during the week, you will get the impression that they have turned into more of a cup side over the last eight years. Although they’ve only finished outside of the top four on three occasions in that time, they haven’t really been serious regular challengers for the title, but have picked up numerous cup victories – including the Champions League and World Club Cup.

The new owners have spent more at Chelsea than Roman Abramovich did during his time with the club, but it’s interesting to note to begin with just how much they have taken in recently in transfers, but also that they boasted the youngest starting XI in the Premier League last weekend and broke records with teenagers scoring against Ajax in midweek.

It’s an interesting model that is potentially buying Enzo Maresca more time than if they had just spent those sums without focusing on youth.

We travel to the capital with a record at Stamford Bridge that stinks. We played 62 and lost 40, and conceded 140 in the process – losing 10 of the last 12. But when we do win there we do it in big ways. Our last win there in April 2014 during our great escape being the perfect example. Last time out was when we gave John Terry a send off, let’s hope this afternoon is more about us than Chelsea.

The betting…

The bookies have the Lads at a huge 7/1 to win the game, while Chelsea are priced at 1/3, and the draw is 4/1.

Head to head… at Stamford Bridge…

(All competitions)

Sunderland wins: 10
Draws: 12
Chelsea wins: 40
Sunderland goals: 65
Chelsea goals: 140

Last time we met… at Stamford Bridge

Sunday 21st May 2017

Premier League

Chelsea 5-1 Sunderland

[Willian 8’, Hazard 61’, Pedro 77’, Batshuayi 90’, 90’ – Manquillo 3’]

Sunderland: Pickford, Manquillo, Jones, O’Shea, Lescott, Oviedo, Cattermole (Gibson), Larsson, Rodwell, Januzaj (Gooch), Borini Substitutes not used: Mannone, Love, Embleton, Asoro, Maja

Chelsea: Courtois, Moses, Alonso, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Terry (Cahill), Willian, Kante, Costa (Batshuayi), Hazard (Pedro), Fabregas Substitutes not used: Begovic, Zouma, Matic, Chalobah

Attendance: 41,618

Played for both…

Gareth Hall

Croydon-born Gareth Hall came up through the ranks at Chelsea and made over 200 appearances for the club until he had an initial loan move to Sunderland made permanent in 1996. He would only spend a couple of years on Wearside before joining Colin Todd’s Swindon Town in 1998. Hall was also a Welsh international ending up with nine caps.