PRE-MATCH BRIEFING: CHELSEA V SUNDERLAND

The feline football continues as the Black Cats of Sunderland follow on from the Tigers from Hull as Chelsea's opposition. Club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton sharpen their claws.

TALKING POINTS
The old puzzle about who wins the fight when a tiger encounters a lion finally has an answer. Of course it's a trick question, because one big cat lives in Africa and the other is only found in Asia.

They could only meet in a Roman coliseum, a zoo, or, as we now know, the Premier League. And in Wednesday's game Chelsea's rampant lion mauled Hull's tiger - though they still sometimes looked worlds apart.

The game at high-flying City was all about the response to Sunday's jarring defeat by Liverpool. Nothing could have illustrated the spirit of Luiz Felipe Scolari's squad better than the early passing and pressure, capped by a sublime chip by Frank Lampard. Plenty of chances arrived throughout the match, and with better finishing it might have been a far heftier win than 3-0.

KEY STAT Chelsea have conceded four goals in 14 matches this season, that's one in every five-and-a-half hours.

In 2004/5 when José Mourinho's team lost for the first time in the league at Manchester City, they embarked on a thrilling run and remained unbeaten for the remainder of a remarkable season.

In contrast, the first setback of the 2007/8 campaign at Aston Villa was followed up by a dour 0-0 at home to Blackburn. Are we seeing a return to the steely resolve of the title-winning seasons?

In any case, as one famous record ended, another impressive sequence continued. Hull was Chelsea's eighth successive away league win, and we are now unbeaten in 15 away games, stretching back to December last year at the Emirates. Manchester City are the only home side to have scored against us since August. Hopefully we can start to build the home run again starting this weekend.

Liverpool followed up their win at the Bridge last weekend with victory over Portsmouth at Anfield derived from a late penalty. It was their second spot kick of the season. They have also benefited from two own goals and four sendings-off for opponents.

Although it is 18 years since the Reds won the league, they have headed the Premier League in the past and not lasted the pace. They are arguably better-equipped than previously, but it is a long sprint to the line in May. Now the Scouse head has poked up above the parapet, they have to deal with becoming the scalp everyone else wants to hang by the fireside. Will their nerve hold? And will their good fortune with injuries - Torres aside - persist?

Chelsea's only bad news from the win on Humberside came on the injury front, with Felipao suggesting further sidelining for Ricardo Carvalho - three weeks or so with a thigh muscle problem - and explaining that Joe Cole had an ankle problem that may or may not rule him out of action against Sunderland.

Anyone who was looking forward to a season with fewer absences than the previous two has had their hopes dashed at an early stage. Including Michael Essien and Didier Drogba's long term problems, Chelsea players have been unavailable for a total of 51 appearances so far.

Games missed due to injury and illness
Essien 12, Drogba 8, Ballack 6, J Cole 6, Deco 5, Carvalho 4, A Cole 3, Cudicini 3, Mikel 2, Alex 1, Bridge 1, Cech 1, Di Santo 1.

And it's a big welcome back to that herald of chilly terraces, the yellow ball. From now until February the Premier League's official football will be wearing its winter coat - as most fans already were at Hull on Wednesday.

Chelsea could go top for a few hours at least with a win as Harry Redknapp's buoyed-up Spurs host Liverpool in the late game. In the other matches this weekend, let's hope Phil Brown's boys aren't too knocked back to mount a challenge at Old Trafford.

It's a little over 34 years since the Tigers registered their last win against Manchester United, 2-0, in the equivalent of today's Championship. Arsenal must be shell-shocked after Tottenham's late revival in midweek, and on the face of it, Stoke, with their physical presence and aerial bombardment, could be just the sort of team to unsettle the visitors.

The weekend's Barclays Premier League fixtures
Saturday
Everton v Fulham 12.45pm Sky Sports
Chelsea v Sunderland 3pm
Man Utd v Hull City 3pm
Middlesbrough v West Ham 3pm
Portsmouth v Wigan 3pm
Stoke v Arsenal 3pm
WBA v Blackburn 3pm
Tottenham v Liverpool 5.30pm Setanta
Sunday
Bolton v Man City 4pm Sky Sports
Monday
Newcastle v Aston Villa 8pm Setanta

Barclays Premier League table

Top		P	GD	PTS
1	Liverpool	10	9	26
2	Chelsea	10	18	23
3	Arsenal	10	12	20
4	Aston Villa	10	7	20
5	Hull	10	0	20
6	Man Utd	9	10	18
7	Portsmouth	10	-5	14
8	Man City	10	7	13
9	Middlesbrough	10	-5	13
10	Sunderland	10	-2	12

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TACTICAL BRIEF
Keane was hugely disappointed with his team's performance at the Britannia Ground, especially the tentative start that set the tone. He used a defensive 4-4-1-1 formation there, and was undone with Rory Delap's old heave-ho and some dire defensive marking.

His sole striker was Cisse, who laboured hard enough without sufficient support or ball service. El-Hadj Diouf plays as a secondary striker.

The key news for Roy Keane was that Kenwyne Jones came through another 45 minutes of football in midweek at Stoke, having played for the first time this season in the historic 2-1 win against Newcastle last weekend. The Trinidadian has been out for months with knee ligament damage, but looked fit enough as a sub that the Sunderland boss mused about him starting against Chelsea.

This is the agile, powerful, dominant striker compared to Didier Drogba by George Burley, who had him at Southampton, and hailed by our own John Terry as his toughest opponent last season.

Jones and Richardson both had one shot on target against Stoke, and they were the only Sunderland players to do so.

No doubt Keane will have his players quicker out of the blocks for the game at the Bridge, but last season his team were surprisingly subdued. It was 2-0 even before Liam Miller was shown the red card.

Didier Drogba missed that match - Andriy Shevchenko led the line and scored the opener - and this match may come too early for the recuperating Ivorian.

Nicolas Anelka is in good goalscoring form, netting in half our 10 Premier League games. Florent Malouda has already equalled his league tally of last year.

WE HAVE HISTORY
For supporters of a certain age, two dispiriting cup defeats are immortally entwined with the name Sunderland: the League Cup in 1985, and FA Cup in 1992. However the boot has more often been on the other foot, and the Mackems have only one league victory to their name at Stamford Bridge in the past 51 years.

Their last win on the Fulham Road came in March 2001 when Peter Reid's side, fifth in the league, beat eighth-placed Chelsea 4-2, despite the Blues taking the lead twice through Marcel Desailly and Eidur Gudjohnsen. Don Hutchinson with two, Gavin McCann and Kevin Phillips scored for the visitors.

Three of the top eight that day are no longer in the top flight: 1 Man Utd, 2 Arsenal, 3 Ipswich, 4 Liverpool, 5 Sunderland, 6 Leicester, 7 Leeds, 8 Chelsea.

One of Sunderland's top performers this season has been striker Djibril Cisse. The former Liverpool striker played in both legs of our Champions League semi-final against the Scousers in 2005, and the FA Cup semi-final the following season. He has never scored against us.

Welcome back to Chelsea old boy Nick Colgan. The Sunderland sub goalkeeper's next appearance will be his 250th in English and Scottish football. Nick came through our youth ranks playing 74 youth games and 59 for the reserves. His one appearance in the first team was a 2-3 defeat at West Ham in March 1997 as a replacement for the injured Frode Grodas. The 249 games have been with for Brentford, Reading, Hibernian, Stockport, Barnsley, Dundee Utd and Wigan.

Our Premier League record against Sunderland at Stamford Bridge in full is as follows
1996/97 Chelsea won 6-2
1999/00 Chelsea won 4-0
2000/01 Sunderland won 4-2
2001/02 Chelsea won 4-0
2002/03 Chelsea won 3-0
2005/06 Chelsea won 2-0
2007/08 Chelsea won 2-0

LAST SEASON'S CORRESPONDING MATCH
Chelsea 2 Sunderland 0
Premier League, Saturday December 8th 2007 at Stamford Bridge
Referee Peter Walton
Crowd 41,707

Chelsea Manager Avram Grant. Cudicini Belletti Alex Terry (c) A Cole Wright-Phillips Mikel Lampard J Cole Shevchenko Kalou Substitutes Pizarro for Kalou (65), Sidwell for J Cole (85) Scorers Shevchenko 23, Lampard 75 pen Booked None Jones Leadbitter Wallace Whitehead (c) Etuhu Miller Collins Higginbotham McShane Halford Ward Manager Roy Keane Sunderland Substitute Murphy for Jones (67), Stokes for Leadbitter (69) Sent off Miller 87 Booked Wallace

Other match last season
15 Mar 2008 Premier League
Sunderland.........0 Chelsea.........1
Att: 44,679 Terry 10

Chelsea v Sunderland in all competitions
Games played 106
Chelsea wins 47
Sunderland wins 38
Draws 21

Head-to-head in the League at Stamford Bridge
Games played 51
Chelsea wins 33
Sunderland wins 7
Draws 11

Biggest league win at Stamford Bridge for each team
13/12/1930 Chelsea 5-0 Sunderland
12/03/1909 Chelsea 1-4 Sunderland

CHELSEA STATS
Chelsea's win at Hull on Wednesday was our eighth successive away league victory and extended our unbeaten away Premier League run to 15 games (13 wins and two draws) since the Arsenal defeat in December last year.

Chelsea have not lost when scoring first in the Premier League since the 1-2 defeat at Tottenham in November 2006.

Chelsea have failed to score on only two occasions in 2008 (28 Premier League matches), both against Liverpool; in February's goalless draw and last Sunday's 0-1 defeat.

Chelsea's previous six games

Oct 1	CFR Cluj	A	D 0-0 Champions League
Oct 5	Aston Villa	H	W 2-0
Oct 18	Middlesbrough	A	W 5-0
Oct 22	Roma	H	W 1-0 Champions League
Oct 26	Liverpool	H	L 0-1
Oct 29	Hull City	A	W 3-0

2008/09 Premier League scorers
Anelka 5, Lampard 4 (1 pen), Kalou 3, Belletti 2, J Cole 2, Deco 2, Malouda 2, Bosingwa 1, Carvalho 1. Total 22.

MILESTONES
Chelsea's next goal will be our 1,000th in the Premier League.

Frank Lampard is one strike away from his 100th Premier League goal, for West Ham (24) and Chelsea (75).

If Petr Cech avoids conceding he will keep his 100th clean sheet for Chelsea in his 180th game. He is second in our all-time list behind Peter Bonetti who kept 208 in 729 games. Carlo Cudicini is third with 95 plus five shared as a substitute.

Last week John Terry was named in FIFPro's 'World XI'. He is the only player to have figured in each eleven since the start in 2004.

Five Chelsea players were nominated for FIFA's World Player of the Year for 2008. No one has ever won the award while a Chelsea player, but Frank Lampard was runner-up in 2005 and has been short-listed every year since 2004.

FIFA WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Short-listed Blues
2008 Michael Ballack, Deco, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry
2007 Didier Drogba (4th), Michael Essien, Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, John Terry
2006 Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard, Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Essien, Petr Cech
2005 Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Arjen Robben
2004 Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard

If selected, Juliano Belletti will make his 50th appearance in a blue shirt.

John Terry will make his 350th start in league and cups in 10 years since making his debut. His next goal will equal Peter Sillett's record as the top-scoring defender in Chelsea history, 34.

SUNDERLAND STATS
Sunderland's defeat at Stoke on Wednesday was their first reverse in four games.

Eight of the 13 Black Cats' league and cup goals have been scored in the last 10 minutes.

Sunderland have won two and drawn one of their last three visits to London after 14 successive defeats.

The Black Cats' only league and cup defeats on their travels have been at Villa Park a month ago and at Stoke on Wednesday.

Sunderland's last major piece of silverware was the FA Cup in 1973 when Ian Porterfield scored the winner for the Second Division side against Leeds. They have won the League on six occasions, the last being in 1936.


BLACK CATS IN THE PREM

	Pts	Pos
1996/97	40	18th
1999/00	58	7th
2000/01	57	7th
2001/02	40	17th
2002/03	19	20th
2005/06	15	20th
2007/08	39	15th

MOST RECENT PREMIER LEAGUE LINE-UP
Wednesday October 29, Stoke City (away) L 0-1

Fulop Bardsley Ferdinand Collins McCartney Malbranque Whitehead (c) Yorke Richardson Diouf Cissé Substitutes Jones for Yorke (h/t), Chopra for Cissé (62), Reid for Malbranque (75)

The Black Cats lost thanks to a Rory Delap long throw and Ricardo Fuller header in the 73rd minute.

Sunderland's previous six games

Sep 23	Northampton	H	D 2-2 League Cup (won 4-3 on pens)
Sep 27	Aston Villa	A	L 1-2
Oct 4	Arsenal	H	D 1-1
Oct 18	Fulham	A	D 0-0
Oct 25	Newcastle	H	W 2-1
Oct 29	Stoke	A	L 0-1

2008/09 Premier League scorers
Cissé 3, Chopra 2, Richardson 2, Leadbitter 1, own goal 1 (Bramble, Wigan). Total 9.

Sunderland's manager this decade
Peter Reid Mar 1995 to Oct 2002
Howard Wilkinson Oct 2002 to Mar 2003
Mick McCarthy Mar 2003 to Mar 2006
Niall Quinn Jul 2006 to Aug 2006
Roy Keane Aug 2006 to date


NEW BOYS
Sunderland's major summer transfers

Ins Pascal Chimbonda (Tottenham, undisclosed), Teemu Tainio (Tottenham, undisclosed), El Hadji Diouf (Bolton, £2.5m), Steed Malbranque (Tottenham, undisclosed), Djibril Cissé (Marseille, season long loan), David Healy (Fulham, undisclosed), Anton Ferdinand (West Ham, undisclosed), George McCartney, West Ham, undisclosed), Nick Colgan (Ipswich, free). Outs Andy Cole (Nottingham Forest, free), Dickson Etuhu (Fulham, undisclosed), Danny Higginbotham (Stoke, undisclosed), Ian Harte (released), Stephen Wright (released), Greg Halford (Sheffield Utd, season long loan), Ross Wallace (Preston, season long loan), Paul McShane (Hull, season long loan)

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE
The referee is Martin Atkinson. He handled our 2-0 win at Stoke this season, but this is his first Sunderland match.

OTHERWISE ENGAGED
There are no suspensions on either side.