Reece James and Levi Colwill will return to the Chelsea starting lineup when they take on Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

Chelsea will be eager to qualify for a European competition and end a wretched season on a strong note when they lock horns with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday evening. Calum McFarlane has no new issues to worry about ahead of his side’s latest fixture.

The English tactician has been sweating over the fitness of Levi Colwill and Joao Pedro over the past week, but they have resumed training ahead of the trip to Sunderland. However, Estevao Willian (hamstring), Jesse Derry (head), and Jamie Gittens (thigh) remain in the treatment room.

Additionally, Mykhailo Mudryk continues his suspension after failing a doping test over a year ago. Meanwhile, during his pre-match press conference, McFarlane provided fitness updates on Levi Colwill, Reece James, and Joao Pedro.

Chelsea’s interim head coach said, “Joao and Levi both trained today and that’s really promising. We have another day of training tomorrow, so we will see how they are after that but we’re hopeful they’ll both be fit for Sunday.”

“Reece trained today and we’ll play it day by day with him. He’s fit and in a good condition but we know that we’ve had to manage Reece correctly over the last few games. He obviously played a lot of minutes in the [FA Cup] final, which was a tough game against a really good side so it was going to take a lot out of him, so we didn’t want to risk him on Tuesday.”

Robert Sanchez is an automatic pick between the sticks, with Chelsea lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation in front of him against Sunderland on Sunday. The backline will feature Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, and Marc Cucurella.

As for the midfield unit, there is no looking past Moises Caicedo and Reece James in the double pivot, with Enzo Fernandez reprising the no. 10 role. Finally, Joao Pedro will lead the line for the away side against Sunderland, with Pedro Neto and Cole Palmer completing the numbers in the offensive unit.

Predicted Chelsea XI: Sanchez; Gusto, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, Neto; Joao Pedro