After two disappointing defeats against Manchester City and Juventus, Chelsea has returned to winning ways after beating Southampton by 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues led early into the game from a corner thanks to Trevoh Chalobah. Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side scored the equaliser midway through to the second half from the penalty spot by James Ward-Prowse. The Blues found two late goals from Timo Werner and Ben Chilwell after Ward-Prowse was shown a red card on the 77th-minute mark.
Following the win, Chelsea moved up to the top of the Premier League with 16 points from seven games. And Southampton is currently sitting 17th one place higher than the relegation zone with four points in as many games.
Chelsea 3-1 Southampton team news:
Thomas Tuchel shuffled his pack a bit and made quite a few changes from the midweek defeat against Juventus and made five changes. Timo Werner started the game along with Callum Hudson-Odoi in place of Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz. Romelu Lukaku led the game for the Blues.
Hasenhuttl went with his preferred 4-4-2 formation and Alex McCarthy started in goal. Former Chelsea man Valentino Livramento was on the right full-back position, Jan Bednarek and Mohammed Salisu were on the heart of the defence. Adam Armstrong and Nathan Redmond led the line for the Saints.
Chelsea 3-1 Southampton Post-match analysis:
Chelsea started the game as it was expected, they pressed high and played with a very high tempo. While Southampton struggled to find many openings. Eventually, the Blues scored the goal from a corner. While an excellent delivered cross was flicked nicely towards the back post by Ruben Loftus-Cheek and unmarked Chalobah easily found the back of the net.
After the goal, the Blues managed to score twice before the first half, but both times the goals were ruled out for offside and a foul.
Southampton started the second half brighter. While they found the equaliser when Chilwell’s rough tackle earned a penalty for the Saints and Ward-Prowse made no mistake to score from the 12-yard distance.
However, Hasenhuttl’s side’s resistance fell apart after Ward-Prowse was shown a red card for a bad challenge on substitute Jorginho. First Werner scored the goal from an excellent cross from Cesar Azpilicueta and then from Chilwell’s volley.
Notable Performances:
Trevoh Chalobah: The youngster has only started three matches so far in the league this season and already scored twice. He looked very comfortable in defending and showed confidence to play out from the back.
Ben Chilwell: Got the first start of the new Premier League and took full advantage of the opportunity. When he gave away the penalty. It felt that the selection might be wrong from Tuchel but made amends for that mistake by scoring the late goal.
Alex McCarthy: The goalkeeper was the only reason that the Saints were in the game until the last moment of the game, and made quite a few terrific saves.
Chelsea will play away to Brentford next after the international break on 16th October. And Southampton will welcome Leeds United on the same day.
Follow us on Twitter to get the latest football news and updates.
