Emi Martinez is keen to face Sunderland this weekend, but the decision will come down to Xabi Alonso when hep picks his team.

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Chelsea are getting ready to face Sunderland on Sunday, and Xabi Alonso looks set to have a few big team decisions to make.

No bigger one will come than over who to play in goal. Emi Martinez had his jaw brutally broken against Everton 3 weeks ago, but was pictured training with the first team yesterday.

Meanwhile Mike Penders came in to replace him, and after one dodgy game against Tottenham on his debut, has played well against Liverpool and Manchester United since. Martinez was pictured back in training for the first time since the injury yesterday.

Martinez pushing to play against Sunderland

Kieran Gill’s Chelsea Confidential piece today for the Daily Mail has the latest on the Argentine’s return. He says that Martinez has been “pushing” to play in Sunday’s game against Sunderland, in part because he wants to prove his fitness for his country during hte upcoming international break.

He’s now got the call up from Lionel Scaloni – which may mean there’s no need to rush him into action.

Our prediction would be that, despite Martinez’s eagerness, Alonso goes with Penders for Sunday, and Martinez can then play with Argentina over the international break and see how he gets on.

In other news…

Another thing Gill noted in his piece was that the reason Estevao was chosen to play against Man U was because of something very specific with their team.

There were some interesting things to note from Chelsea’s training session at Cobham today.