Chelsea: From Premier League champions to relegation candidates?

There can be no question that Chelsea were the dominant force in the Premier League last season, with Jose Mourinho’s men sweeping aside all that stood before them with ominous ease. It was the combination of superb defensive resilience and ruthlessness in attack that saw Chelsea not only set a new league record for the length of time spent at the summit, but also effectively saw them win the title in the first half of the season.

All the plaudits which headed their way were thoroughly deserved, but although their rivals looked on with enviable eyes, there was little surprise when Bookies.com made Chelsea favourites to successful defend their Premier League crowd. However, no-one could predict the dramatic fall from grace that they have endured this season, with Mourinho not only losing his job at Stamford Bridge for the second time in his managerial career, but Chelsea find themselves just one point above the relegation zone. Read more

Everton ended their run of three league matches

Everton ended their run of three league matches without a win in the best manner possible.

They thrashed Sunderland 6-2 at Goodison Park in a result that provides a lot of confidence to the blues. Over the last few weeks, confidence has especially been around these parts after the club went through the whole month of October without a league victory. The previous success for the club in the Premier League game against West Brom when a narrow 3-2 victory gave them all three points. The result against Sunderland, though, is much more emphatic.

Everton were always going to be the favourites against a relegation threatened to Sunderland, who had not really shown much improvement since the arrival of Sam Allardyce. The former Newcastle United manager has a reputation for keeping poor teams in the division due to a combination of factors. Allardyce favours a physical style of football that is really hard to play against, but it seems that he will need more time and possibly new players in order to spark a revival at Sunderland. Aston Villa continue to remain rooted at the bottom of the table while Sunderland are only slightly better. The Black Cats now have the worst defence in the Premier League with 25 goals conceded already. Read more