St Mary’s was a happy hunting ground for Chelsea, as we came away from Southampton winning 1-4. It was our fourth win on the bounce in league and cup – this since the Liverpool defeat on September 22; the victory cemented fifth position in the Premier League, this just ahead of the forthcoming international break. With Newcastle visiting Stamford Bridge after the international break, there’s every chance that the win tally could reach five out of five on October 19. The win gave us momentum as we’re currently within grasp of Manchester City in second place, who surprisingly lost 0-2 to Wolves.
Callum Hudson-Odoi was included in the starting eleven and it was Callum who supplied Tammy Abraham for our first goal. Jorginho won the ball and passed to Hudson-Odoi who knocked the ball over the top of Southampton’s defence; it found Tammy who was then able to loop the ball over the oncoming Gunn. Even though Yoshida tried to hook the ball back into play, the ball had already crossed the line as goal line technology confirmed that we’d gone 0-1 ahead.
Just seven minutes later it was the turn of Mason Mount to score after some poor Southampton defending. The ball was kicked out by Gunn, but Willian managed to retrieve the ball, found Mount in space who slammed the ball past Gunn to make it 0-2.
At this point it was a case of how many we could possibly get, as Mount had another chance soon after, however, he skewed his shot wide via a low cross from Tammy on the left. Soon after Southampton’s Valery got in down the right, he cut in to beat Jorginho, crossed to find Ings, who scored past Kepa Arizbalaga. Suddenly at 1-2, Southampton looked a little more dangerous and our defence looked a little fragile.
Once we’d weathered the Southampton storm, we came back and looked formidable again. This time it was a Kanté effort which put us 1-3 ahead. Kanté received the ball just outside the box, struck a low shot which flicked off of Hojbjerg and beat Gunn.
In the second half, and at 1-3, it really was game over. In the 48th minute Callum Hudson-Odoi had a great low effort which was saved by the legs of Gunn. Southampton showed very little effort or craft in the second half. We wrapped up the game in the 88th minute though when substitutes Christian Pulisic passed the ball through for Michy Batshuayi to slot through the legs of Gunn.
At 1-4 it really was time to celebrate; who said that we’d miss Eden Hazard’s goals and assists? That’s now three goals at Norwich, five at Wolves and four at Southampton; let’s hope that the goals keep flowing. Willian had a great game today, his running both towards goal and defending back towards goal made him stand out on the day.
Team:
Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso; Kanté, Jorginho; Willian , Mount (Kovacic 80), Hudson-Odoi (Pulisic 80); Abraham (Batshuayi 84)
Scorers: Abraham (17) Mount (24) Kanté (40) Batshuayi (89)
Attendance: 31,473
Referee: Paul Tierney.
