Chelsea FC: Predicting & Previewing AVB's Starting 11 for Sunderland vs. Chelsea

Chelsea are unbeaten but they've endured a stagnant start to the season and cannot afford to keep dropping points as the two Manchester sides blitz ahead.

André Villas-Boas' men take their talents to the Stadium of Light, where they'll face a Sunderland side who've yet to win. 

Fernando Torres said it best when he was spoke candidly to the La Liga website,

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"In the next matches, you will see another pace, and I hope the midfield will adapt to that pace. [...] That's because of the kind of player Chelsea has—an older player, who plays very slow, who has a lot of possession, and that's what the club is trying to change now."

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With this in mind, it's probable that Chelsea's starting 11 will be radically different.

So here are my predictions of Villas-Boas' starting 11 against Sunderland.   

Goalkeeper: Petr Čech

What a relief it is to hear Petr Čech is back training with the team. 

Hilário is a squad player and it's no surprise he made a mistake against Norwich City. 

Ross Turnbull is useless; why have him in the squad when Chelsea could promote a goalkeeper within the academy? 

With Čech back in the starting 11, Chelsea fans won't be having their hearts in their mouths when watching either Hilário or Turnbull deputise.   

Right Back: José Bosingwa

José Bosingwa was surprisingly given a chance by manager André Villas-Boas. 

Bosingwa has looked sharp on the overlap, and his combination with Ashley Cole could be the best wing-back combination in the league. 

The difficult decision for Villas-Boas is whether to start Branislav Ivanović, a more solid right-back, or start Bosingwa, whose wing-play can hide the stagnant midfield.  

At Porto, Villas-Boas had a carbon-copy situation, to play the more defensive minded Cristian Săpunaru or the attack minded Jorge Fucile. 

The Portuguese manager generally went with Săpunaru, in part due to Fucile's injuries, indiscipline and being a liability in defence.    

Centre Back: John Terry

John Terry is the heart and soul of the Chelsea lineup. He picks himself. 

He's won 63 percent of challenges he's contested in, and the majority of challenges he has "lost out" on were aerial challenges where he's managed to stop the opposing player getting off a free header.

His distribution so far has been solid, with a 89 percent success rate.

Did you know Terry made 62 successful passes against West Bromwich Albion? 

Centre Back: David Luiz

David Luiz has recovered from a thigh injury, and has been training with the team.

The Brazilian's ability to bring the ball out of defence will be invaluable, and hopefully will set the attacks off faster.

The only concern is that Luiz has been prone to odd rush of blood moment. Though considering how awful Branislav Ivanović has been, it's not like Ivanović is a legitimate option at centre back.  

Meanwhile, Alex is going to bed every night dreaming of playing at the brand new Juventus Stadium—ironically he played for a Brazilian club called Juventus during his youth days.  

Left Back: Ashley Cole

For a wing-back, Ashley Cole's 87 percent success rate when distributing is astonishing.

Then you think, wait a minute, it should be way lower because he should be delivering crosses, most of which wouldn't be successful crosses. 

Turns out, he's taken more throw-ins than crosses.

For your information, he's only sent in eight crosses in three games, two of which were successful—he took nine throw-ins against Stoke City alone.

Just to throw in this stat: Ashley Young has delivered 30 crosses.   

No wonder Fernando Torres feels a bit hard done by. 

It's one thing sending in hail Mary crosses, it's another not bothering to send in crosses at all, thus starving Torres of any chance of scoring a goal. 

That being said, Cole has looked lively down the left flank.

Maybe he'd send in more crosses if he was sure Torres wouldn't be out-muscled by the opposing centre-back.  

Centre Midfielder: Raul Meireles

With nearly every media outlet reporting Raul Meireles would be injured until at least mid September, I was shocked to see his name in the Portuguese starting 11 against Cyprus.

Considering André Villas-Boas' preference to play Portuguese based players, I predict Meireles will slot straight into the line up.

Read what Villas-Boas has said about Meireles, 

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"He is always available for a pass—he fits our philosophy. But as well as attacking, he can also play the defensive midfield and holding role well. That will be important for us."

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If you signed a player as a bench warmer, or a squad player, you wouldn't say those kind of things. Also why include the holding role? I thought John Obi Mikel would be the undisputed starter in that position.  

Remember what Fernando Torres has said,

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"When the team will start to get the ideas of the new coach, about paced and vertical football, it's going to be very good."

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Pace and vertical football are not what Mikel offers, therefore the Nigerian, who has played his role well in the face of adversity, will be dropped.    

Centre Midfielder: Frank Lampard

What's with all the criticism directed towards Frank Lampard? 

Who has created the most goal scoring chances so far in the Premier League?

Lampard with 14.

He averages 54 passes a game, at an 84 percent success rate.

Unlike John Obi Mikel, the large majority of Lampard's passes are vertical, incisive passes. 

Look at his unsuccessful passes, only one wasn't an attempt at an incisive pass.

My only criticism towards Lampard is I want to see the 20 goals a season Lampard.

Then again, he can't do anything about it, because clearly manager André Villas-Boas wants to play him in a more distributional role.    

Centre Midfielder: Ramires

Ramires offers dynamism, directness, all-action work ethic and box-to-box running.

In the past three games, he's contested in 30 challenges, but the critique levelled at him is that he'll never be a consistent enough creator or scorer. 

My reply is, well it's not his job to create or score, rather to do the dirty work. 

Ramires had a horrible start to his Chelsea career, but has since shown he can become a long term starter for the team. 

His two lung-bursting runs against Norwich City were extraordinary.

Who knows, maybe in a couple of seasons time, he can emulate Park Ji-Sung, who has proven he's not just a runner, he can also score and create.   

Right Forward: Daniel Sturridge

At the start of the month, John Terry claimed Daniel Sturridge's name was the first on the team sheet, of course being suspended made that inapplicable for the last three games. 

Perhaps Sturridge starting is hinted at in Fernando Torres' unwavering praise, 

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"Daniel Sturridge, who has been ruled out for a while, is also an incredible player—maybe the one that has surprised me the most since I came here." 

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Centre Forward: Fernando Torres

Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas has talked about dropping Fernando Torres, 

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"The moment when it compromises the running of the team I think it has to come to an end (...) I have no problem dropping players."

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No wonder Torres has been so vocal about the slow, idea-less and inefficient midfield; ironically traits he has exhibited so far in his 21 games for Chelsea. 

He's sent out an S.O.S to compatriot Juan Mata. 

Left Forward: Juan Mata

The saviour has arrived at Stamford Bridge!

Tasked not only to inject creativity, to provide incisive passing, to make Chelsea more entertaining, but he's also here to rescue a sinking Fernando Torres.

I did not think Juan Mata would be signed by Chelsea since Arsenal, who had £68 million to spend, would have spent a proportion of that on Mata.

It matters not because Chelsea have Mata.  

Predicted Formation and Starting 11

Remember manager André Villas-Boas' bread and butter is a 4-3-3, and arriving at Stamford Bridge, he had used the formation 93 percent of the time. 

With John Obi Mikel, the formation can never be a true 4-3-3, because it will always be a 4-1-2-3, considering how deep Mikel plays. 

This is a very attacking formation, there's been so much talk about Chelsea being boring, lacking ideas, winning ugly; and surely Villas-Boas, an attacking manager, will change it up. 

So what happens with Mikel's duties? Well David Luiz will just carry possession into midfield and distribute.

What about Frank Lampard? In this formation, he would have to play a distributional role because there's no way he'd be bombing up forward leaving a gaping hole through the midfield.

Sunderland vs. Chelsea | 4-4-1-1 vs 4-3-3

We've talked about Chelsea, let's talk about Sunderland. 

Ahmed Elmohamady must be used in order to keep Ashley Cole preoccupied, because the Egyptian's darting runs will be potent if left free.

With Asamoah Gyan injured from a pointless friendly, not to mention his head filled with "bull__it" surrounding a move to Real Madrid; Nicklas Bendtner will start. 

During the 2006-2007 season, Bendtner played with, then fellow Arsenal loanees, Fabrice Muamba and Sebastian Larsson for Birmingham City under Steve Bruce. 

Having started on the left side of midfield against Liverpool, where he scored a beautiful goal, and again on the left against Newcastle United, Sebastian Larsson should start on the left against Chelsea. 

Especially against someone like José Bosingwa who leaves so much vacant space open as he marauds forward.

If Chelsea turn over possession, Larsson could exploit the space left by Bosingwa, cut in to shoot or provide. 

The danger man will be Stéphane Sessègnon, one of the league's most technically gifted players.

He's always been a wide player for Paris Saint-Germain, yet Bruce has used him as a withdrawn forward in a 4-4-1-1.

Please also read Analysis of Fernando Torres' Failures.