Quinn tips Sunderland to spring another surprise against Chelsea

April’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge, which came courtesy of goals from Connor Wickham and Fabio Borini, effectively ended Chelsea’s hopes of overhauling Manchester City to claim a fourth Premier League title, and also ended Mourinho’s run of 77 unbeaten home league games as boss of the Blues.

If anything, a follow-up success at the Stadium of Light on Saturday would be even more of a surprise, with Chelsea unbeaten in 18 matches in all competitions this season and Sunderland having claimed just one home win from seven games.

Nevertheless, Quinn can see reasons for optimism in Chelsea’s hectic schedule, Sunderland’s recent defensive improvement and the Black Cats’ record of wins in each of their last two matches against the current league leaders.

“It’s very hard to go through a full season unbeaten, and these are the kind of games that can sometimes catch you out,” said the former Sunderland centre-forward, manager and chairman. “Sunderland certainly did that last season, and they can take heart from that.

“This won’t be straight-forward for Chelsea, even though things have been going so well for them. I know they can change their team around, but they’ll have travelled to and from Schalke in midweek and Sunderland will have had an easier preparation.

“Sunderland have steadied the ship really well and have had some great days against Chelsea over the years. Their record against them is probably as good as just about anyone in the league, and you only have to look back to the back end of last season to see what they’re capable of.

“There are a couple of factors that make you just think they could do this. All known form will tell you it’s going to be very difficult, but you just need a goal and Sunderland have a couple of players who are more than capable of putting the ball in the net.”

Quinn has powerful personal memories of beating Chelsea, with the Irishman having scored twice in the 4-1 victory in 1999 that is widely regarded as one of the greatest performances ever seen at the Stadium of Light.

Current Black Cats boss Gus Poyet scored Chelsea’s second-half consolation that day, and vividly remembers his half-time emotions as he attempted to come to terms with being 4-0 down.

Quinn and Kevin Phillips scored two goals apiece in the opening 38 minutes, despite facing a pair of centre-halves who had recently won the World Cup with France.

“The Chelsea win is one of the stand-out memories from my playing days with Sunderland, probably along with the Charlton play-off and the Newcastle derby win in the rain,” said Quinn, who was back in the North-East yesterday reopening Wellfield Community School in Wingate, County Durham.

“Chelsea had two World Cup-winning centre-backs playing that day in (Marcel) Desailly and (Franck) Lebouef. Both of them went off injured, but played in the following game, so I just think they wanted to get out of there.

“We wiped the floor with them. Me and Kevin got the goals, but Paul Thirlwell played with Eric Roy in central midfield that day and had a star game. I remember later on that evening, Paul was out with us and maybe because he was the new lad, he wasn’t buying us a drink.

“We said, ‘Come on, you’ve got to buy a drink’. He said, ‘I can’t’. I said, ‘Well why not?’ And he said, ‘I can’t get my wallet out of my pocket because Dennis Wise is still in there’. That had us in stitches.”

While the Chelsea side that day also contained the likes of Gianfranco Zola and Tore Andre Flo, it is safe to say the Stamford Bridge club has changed out of all recognition since Roman Abramovich took over as owner.

Quinn will watch them take on Schalke in the Champions League tonight in his guise as a pundit on Sky Sports, and fully expects Mourinho to be celebrating another Premier League title come May.

“I think it’s going to be hard to stop them,” he said. “Everything’s just going so well for them, whereas you look at Manchester City and they just hobbled over the line again at the weekend against Swansea.

“Manchester United have taken so long to get going, and the same is true of Arsenal and Liverpool. All of what you might call the usual challengers have found it difficult. You’re looking at Southampton to keep the gap down at the moment, and that’s incredible really.”

Sunderland will be satisfied with finishing in mid-table, and Quinn has seen enough in the last few games to convince him that Poyet’s side possesses the resolve and organisation required to comfortably survive.

“I’m impressed with the way they seem to have got back on track after the Southampton debacle because that could have been a slippery slope,” he said. “It might have been hard to recover from, especially because Arsenal was another tough game straight after.

“Since then, I think it’s fair to say they’re back in business – maybe not to the extent that Newcastle are, that’s obvious, but there’s something resilient there.”