Premier League Wednesday, Gameweek 21: Open Thread

Expect ESPN commentator Ian Darke to be frothing at the mouth during today’s broadcast of Liverpool against Sunderland on US television. Darke will assuredly be very excited about all of the transfer activity today with Daniel Sturridge expected to be in the director’s box to watch his new club play Sunderland, while Demba Ba will be en-route to London to finalize a deal with Chelsea.

There is football to be played today, however. In addition to the aforementioned Liverpool-Sunderland match, we have two eyeopening games in store for us. How-many-goals-can-we-score Chelsea plays at home against no-hope-in-hell Queens Park Rangers. And last but not least, Newcastle United sans Demba Ba plays Everton.

Team news. Starting line-ups are as follows:

Chelsea: Turnbull; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic, Bertrand, D Luiz, Lampard; Moses, Oscar, Marin, Torres.

QPR: Cesar; Onuoha, Hill, Nelsen, Fabio; Derry; Mackie, Mbia, Granero, Hoilett; Taarabt.

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Wisdom, Skrtl, Agger, Downing, Sterling, Henderson, Gerrard ( c ), Lucas, Suarez.

Sunderland: Mignolet, Rose, Gardner, Kilgallon, Cuellar ( c) Johnson, McClean, Larsson, Colback, Fletcher, Sessegnon.

Newcastle: Krul; Perch, Williamson, Coloccini (c), Santon; Tiote, Anita; Cisse, Marveaux, Obertan; Shola Ameobi.

Everton: Howard, Jagielka, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Naismith, Neville, Osman, Pienaar; Fellaini; Jelavic.

For US viewers, here’s the TV and Internet schedule today:

Wednesday, January 2:

Chelsea vs QPR, 2:45pm, FOX Soccer
Liverpool vs Sunderland, 2:45pm, ESPN2/ESPN3.com
Newcastle vs Everton, 3pm, ESPN3.com

Before, during or after today’s matches, follow along with the conversations surrounding the matches in the comments section below.