“Toughest test yet” – How Chelsea can beat Sunderland and how former Strasbourg star is shining | OneFootball

Chelsea take on Sunderland this afternoon, so in advance of the game we spoke to Matthew Crichton of the Roker Report to find out a little more about how their season is going, and what he makes of today’s game and Chelsea’s progress as a whole.

You can read our writer Will Faulks’ answers to Matthew’s questions here.

Habib Diarra runs with the ball. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Chelsea News: Sunderland’s transfer business has dominated the narrative around their season – do you put the success down to good scouting or has it just been good coaching getting them to gel really quickly?

Matthew Crichton: I think in pre-season Sunderland clearly accepted that the gap between the Championship and Premier League in depth of quality is simply too high and that an overhaul in starting players was required to have a proper go at this level.

From what we can see so far, the club aimed to recruit players with pace and power and many of them have experience playing in European competitions across various leagues around Europe.

Of course, I think Regis Le Bris is doing a brilliant job, but equally the appointment Florent Ghisolfi as Sporting Director has been crucial in bringing a completely higher level of player to the Stadium of Light.

I don’t think any Sunderland fan can be unhappy with how the club has tried to push forward to the next level and stay in the Premier League.

As you mention though, the fact a brand new team is delivering results so quickly is excellent to see, but Chelsea will certainly be our toughest test yet.

Regis Le Bris is an interesting coach who we don’t know much about – what are his strengths and how highly do you rate him?

The Frenchman came in as a complete enigma to Sunderland fans at the a time when morale was massively low due to the nightmare appointment of Michael Beale and Mike Dodds’ struggling spell as caretaker afterwards.

Regis is a very calm coach who is very patient, highly detailed within his tactics and he’s been a real coup for Sunderland.

Initially linked with the Leeds job before Daniel Farke’s appointment, Le Bris delivered a promotion winning campaign with a very young squad and one that while had some money spent, no real groundbreaking figrues for the Championship.

Since our return to the Premier League, Sunderland look very organised and very combative. I think Le Bris’ key strength is his patience and calmness in sometimes accepting playing deep and trusting the players to defend and play on the transition, even sometimes at home if he believes that is the best way to win the match.

I think he has a great future in management, but I’d like to hope given he signed a new contract this summer and that he has been backed well in the transfer market that he see’s Sunderland as a great place to develop and earn a greater job in the future.

Habib Diarra was a Strasbourg player we saw quite a lot of last season – we were surprised Chelsea weren’t interested. How is he getting on?

Unfortunately Diarra is injured until December so he won’t be involved this weekend, but I’d definitely say that he has started well on Wearside. He possesses great pace on the break, has an excellent work rate and began the season operating between an eight and a ten behind Wilson Isidor or Eliezer Mayenda.

It’s far too early to judge whether he is of a Chelsea level as of yet, but I think given his age and from what I’ve seen so far, he should have a good future ahead of him on Wearside.

You’ve had a strong start – do you think you can keep it up for the rest of the season or is there going to be a relegation fight at some point?

I’m under no illusions that on paper Sunderland’s fixture have been on paper easier. While we’ve taken points away at Palace and at home against Villa, winning away at Forest was brilliant too, we have avoided your Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal/Man City etc and I think today will be a true test of where we are at.

Le Bris was a little too offensive in his setup against Manchester United at Old Trafford and we very quickly were dominated and 2-0 down within the first half, leading to him changing to five at the back, so while I hope he learns from that, coming to Stamford Bridge as a newly promoted side will always be a huge task.

My head and heart both do genuinely believe that Sunderland will avoid relegation, but a top half finish I think feels like a dream. Our December fixtures are dreadful and we do lose some very key players during the African Cup of Nations too, so there’s a period there I think we will suffer.

Having said that, I’m certainly going to enjoy looking at the table sat in Europe before both that and being above our rivals inevitably goes away.

Who is the player still going under the radar from this team?

It seems from what what I’ve saw within the media that the attention has all been on Granit Xhaka, our two central defenders and Robin Roofs in goal, but one player who I absolutely love who has had less attention is Noah Sadiki.

Arriving from the Belgian champions, Sadiki’s energy has been unbelievable in midfield. He’s one of those players who it feels like just gets everywhere. His press, his tackling, his stepping in to break into space, I love it.

From a tactical perspective, it seems as though we recruited to have two pacey hard-working midfielders in Diarra and Sadiki around a slower Granit Xhaka to give our midfield balance.

What do you make of Chelsea and the project there under the new ownership? What is your prediction for the final score tomorrow?

I think for Chelsea fans it’s an exciting period the best part of signing so many young players is the enigma of not knowing just how good they can become.

In all positions it feels like Maresca’s side have a plethora of potential and great depth, so I’m hoping Sunderland play a low-block, play on the transition and utilise set pieces as trying to go toe-to-toe with such a great side away from the home would be ludicrous.

The one negative I will say about Sunderland this season is that on the road this season we’ve scored just once from a set piece and our forward players have looked very very isolated.

I can see a one-sided 2-0 win for Chelsea with Sunderland struggling to create clear cut chances.