Former Real Madrid assistant manager Aitor Karanka who worked under Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu, helped the former Chelsea boss lead Real to the La Liga title in his spell in the Spanish capital. Karanka was brought to the Riverside to deliver Middlesbrough back into the top flight and while it took him a while after missing out at the last hurdle in the play-offs at the end of the 2014-15 season, the Spanish manager achieved the feat inside of the 3 years he has been in charge at the Riverside.

The cornerstone of Karanka’s side has been their superb defensive system which has seen them become one of the stingiest teams when it comes to conceding goals and the performance of Boro in their return to the Premier League has been a pleasant surprise and has seen them become very hard to beat as they sit in 15th in the League. Some of their key acquisitions have been Victor Valdes who has given them a premium shot stopper as well as the addition of Alvaro Negredo who has been a good loan signing joining from Valencia on his return to the Premier League.

Chelsea come into this Sunday’s match on a brilliant run of 5 wins in a row while they have scored 16 goals and amazingly conceded no goals. Of course this run has come since Antonio Conte moved to a 3-4-3 formation which has seen them become a more potent attacking threat. Conte has managed to get the very best out of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard both of whom had below par seasons last year. Conte won the Barclay’s Premier League manager of the month in October as a result of his team’s fine form which has seen them climb to 2nd in the League just a point behind leaders Liverpool.

Boro come into the game on a good streak of their own being unbeaten in their past 3 games which include a draw away to Arsenal followed by a win over Bournemouth and then last time out a draw away to Manchester City. A very impressive string of results you would have to say.

Speaking about his team’s Sunday game against Chelsea, Karanka had this to say as reported by Sky Sports:

“It’s another nice challenge for us. To play against Chelsea in the way they are is tough.

“But we’ve worked hard to play these types of games, so it’s another amazing one for us.

“Antonio [Conte] has done very well and is settling into the league very well. They are second within a couple of months and showing they are a really consistent team.

“I think they are really favourites to win the league, because they take advantage of not playing in the Champions League or Europa League.

“It was important to win against Bournemouth and our crowd deserved to go home happy. After that and the Arsenal and City games we are more confident, but we know it’s going to be a really tough game.

“We have a few doubts in terms of fitness.

“The players who were away have returned, but they have had long journeys. We also have Dani Ayala out, and we have a doubt with George Friend. Friend had a knock on his knee yesterday, so we will need to check.”

“When I came here the team was not in a good way and I felt I could do something nice,” he said as he reflected on his 3 years at the helm at the Riverside and went on to say,

“The chairman and the club and the area deserved to be in the Premier League. Thanks to the chairman and my staff and the players, we are here.

“As a manager, you can’t think long term. As a player you can dream about titles and trophies but, especially me, I cannot think about five or 10 or 15 years.

“My only concern is the Chelsea game and then the Leicester game, and then we will see how long I am here.”

So based on their recent results Middlesbrough are no push over and it will take a solid effort from Conte’s men to secure the win away at Boro. You can imagine that Antonio Conte has left no stone unturned in his preparations which has been a signature of his management so far everywhere he has been and certainly that has been the case at Chelsea where he has definitely endeared himself to the fans, the Board and the players.

We expect Chelsea to leave Middlesbrough with all 3 points courtesy of a 3-1 win over Aitor Karanka and his men.