Former Blue Fabio Borini could be the key for Sunderland against Chelsea

Fabio Borini

As Chelsea travel up north for a midweek fixture at Sunderland, they will most likely be greeted by a familiar face when the teams line up alongside each other.

Fabio Borini was hardly a household name during his time at Stamford Bridge, making just a handful of appearances for the Blues, but has rebuilt his career in spells with Swansea and Roma before an unsuccessful move to Liverpool.

But he has been given another chance at Sunderland, though he has still found goals hard to come by, with his only strike proving to be the match winner in the Tyne-Wear derby with Newcastle.

With Sunderland entrenched in the relegation zone currently, they will need to the Italian to start netting the goals, hopefully starting against his former employers.

In order to do that, he will need his team-mates to start creating more chances for him, with Borini having only mustered six shots in his eight appearances, although he is yet to complete a full ninety minutes.

However, that has meant he has mustered a shot every 46 minutes, which has become symptomatic of Sunderland’s plight, although a 67% accuracy does provide some reason for optimism.

In addition, Borini has only beaten a man on two occasions this season, and won just three headed duels with opponents, while a passing accuracy of 77% has hardly allowed him to integrate team mates into Sunderland’s attacks, leaving him frequently isolated up front.

The Liverpool loanee has also only laid on one chance for colleagues, with Sunderland having only scored in three games that the Italian has participated in.

With the Black Cats in serious trouble at the foot of the table, they will have to hope that Borini can forge a relationship with Steven Fletcher in order to haul themselves out of the mess caused by Paulo Di Canio’s brief reign.

With Chelsea enjoying a run that has seen them climb up to second in the table, it would seem unlikely that they will come armed with a specific plan to deal with their old youngster.

Sunderland fans will just have to hope the old adage of a cold Wednesday night up north applies to defenders as well as the more technical players, if Borini is to inject life in Sunderland’s season and his own Premier League career.