Chelsea visit the Stadium of Light on Thursday to take on a Sunderland team that has been struggling to get out of the relegation places. Second placed Chelsea will be confident to get maximum points against a team shorn of confidence and momentum.  Chelsea had their work cut out against Southampton, but ultimately ended up beating the Saints 3-1 on Sunday. On the other hand, Sunderland missed a host of good chances and had to be content with a goalless draw against Aston Villa.

After their early season struggles, Chelsea have started to get the right results and are in a comfortable 2nd position. They will be expected to be contesting at all fronts when the season draws to a close. In contrast, Sunderland are just one point from the foot of the table and face a long, hard fight to get out of the relegation mire. Gus Poyet will need a miracle if he wants to get something out of this game.

Sunday saw an entertaining game of football between Tottenham and Manchester United, when the Red Devils came from behind twice to pick up a draw. Andre Villas-Boas has been having a tough time in the league and the draw against the reigning Premier League champions will give him some breathing space.

However, AVB was far from happy with the draw and felt that Spurs played well enough to earn all three points from the match. The Portuguese was especially upset about the 2nd goal that United scored which came from a dubious penalty decision from the referee Mike Dean.

The busy period of December fixtures in the Premier League is once again here, just as the rest of the European leagues will have a break. The league leaders, Arsenal will host newly promoted Hull City in a midweek match on Wednesday. The Gunners easily overcame Cardiff 3-0 in Wales, while Hull shocked Liverpool on Sunday to beat them 3-1 at the KC Stadium.  Hull will once again look to pull off an upset, although it looks extremely hard judging by the current run of form the Gunners are having.

Hull have been on a surprising run of form and are currently sitting pretty in 10th place, much higher than manager Steve Bruce or their fans would have expected them to be at this stage of the season. Arsenal meanwhile have gelled well and are on a good run of form, both domestically as well as in Europe, and nothing less than a win will do for the all conquering Gunners.

Premier League matches are coming thick and fast in December and we have another mouth watering fixture between Manchester United and Everton, where ex-Toffees manager David Moyes will entertain his former side for the first time since leaving Goodison Park, at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Manchester United are unbeaten at home since losing 2-1 to West Brom Albion on 28th September and are currently in the midst of a 12 match unbeaten run. As for Everton, their form is nothing short of scintillating wherein their last 6 matches saw the Toffees winning 4 and drawing the other 2.

Chelsea have taken sole possession of  2nd place in the Premier League standings after getting the better of Southampton 3-1, in a game which saw the balance of play change favour in each half. In a classic case of two halves, Southampton were dominant throughout the first half and went in with a deserved 1-0 lead at the break, through Jay Rodriguez’s goal.

The tactical acumen of Jose Mourinho was on display in the 2nd half, as the substitutions he made had an impact on the match result. Chelsea leveled through a scrappy Gary Cahill equaliser. John Terry made a captain’s contribution by helping his team take the lead near the hour mark and Demba Ba wrapped things up, with a goal late on in the 90th minute. The win saw Chelsea close the gap to Arsenal to 4 points once again, while Southampton dropped to 7th place, having lost ground after consecutive defeats in the capital.

Jose Mourinho’s tactical nous came to the fore as Chelsea overturned a 1-0 halftime deficit to bring high-flying Southampton back down to earth. Second half goals from the central defensive pairing of Gary Cahill and John Terry, both setup by the returning Juan Mata put the Blues back on track to victory with substitute Demba Ba grabbing his first of the season in injury time to bring Chelsea right back in contention for the Premier League title with a solid 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.

Both teams made some crucial changes to their starting line-ups with Chelsea affording a first start since 2012 to Michael Essien, while Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres also returned, whereas the Saints included Dejan Lovren and record signing Dani Osvaldo with Rickie Lambert having to be content with a place on the bench.