To be played on Wednesday 4th December 2013 at 19:45. Venue: Stadium of Light, Sunderland.
The team line-ups for Sunderland v Chelsea have been announced:
Sunderland
Mannone, Bardsley, Dossena, O’Shea (C), Brown, Ki, Colback, Gardner, Borini, Giaccherini, Altidore.
Subs: Larsson, Fletcher, Johnson, Celustka, Roberge, Cattermole, Pickford.
Chelsea
Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Willian, Mata, Hazard; Torres.
Subs: Schwarzer, Cole, Essien, Mikel, Schurrle, De Bruyne, Ba.
Chelsea come into the game four points behind Premier League rivals Arsenal, fresh of victory against Southampton at the weekend.
Jose Mourinho has thrown the gauntlet down to Sunderland, describing how a draw would be useless to them. A clever tactic to try and get Gus Poyet’s side to attack, rather than try to ‘park the bus’?
Sunderland while bottom of the league, are capable of springing a surprise, as they showed against Manchester City last month. The Black Cats have failed to kick on since then however, losing two straight.
image: © zongo
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