FULL TIME: Chelsea 1-3 Southampton
A smattering of boos as the final whistle blows. Mourinho shakes Koeman’s hand sadly, then slopes off down the tunnel. The champions are in all sorts of trouble right now. Only West Brom, Villa, Newcastle and Sunderland are beneath them in the Premier League table. John Terry walks off with his head in his hands. But this isn’t just about crisis-club Chelsea; it’s about Southampton too. And they were simply magnificent. Utterly dominant for the final 60 minutes of the match, they scored three and could have had two penalties. They jump above Liverpool into ninth place. Chelsea are 16th, having sourced a mere eight points from their first eight games. No team has ever suffered a start like that and finished higher than fifth. There’s a stat that’ll be trotted out a couple of times during what promises to be quite an eventful international break.
Updated
90 min +4: Southampton fans take some time out to send abuse Portsmouth’s way. It’s their party, they can do what they like.
90 min +3: Mourinho looks the picture of defeat. A thousand-yard stare across the pitch.
Updated
90 min +2: Chelsea pass it around the back awhile. Terry then sprays a loose pass into the stand down the left. Symbolic, huh.
90 min +1: Mane is replaced by Yoshida. Mane’s been magnificent today, and gets a playful cuff round the lug from his manager Ronald Koeman as he takes his place on the bench.
90 min: Pedro dribbles into the Saints area from the right. He has a brief window of opportunity to shoot, but hesitates and falls over his own feet instead. There’s still hope for Chelsea, though, with the referee adding on five extra minutes.
89 min: Azpilicueta, who has done his best to keep Chelsea’s spirits up, nearly bursts clear down the left. He’s eventually forced to check back, though, laying off to Oscar, who scoops timidly wide right from the edge of the area. “I’m furious!” fumes Salfordian Blue. “You’d think Chelsea would be content with taking the title from my beloved Manchester City, but no. They have to take our approach to defending it, too. Shameless.”
87 min: He whips the set piece towards the top left. It’s a highly decent effort, and going in, but Van Dijk rises from the wall to eyebrow it over the bar. The corner is slapped clear by Stekelenburg.
86 min: Hazard attempts to zip through a pocket of Saints players to the right of the D. He’s upended by a clumsy Pelle, who is booked for his trouble. A free kick in a very dangerous position. Falcao prepares to take it.
84 min: Pedro skates down the left, a few stepovers winning a corner. He takes the set piece himself, and fails to beat the first man.
Updated
83 min: Chelsea’s fans are bellowing themselves, a defiant rendition of Carefree. Chelsea’s 12th man is the only one to have turned up today.
82 min: Mourinho is roaming the touchline with his hands in his overcoat pockets, screaming at his team. It galvanises them into action, Remy breaking into the box down the left and whipping a cross to the near post. Stekelenburg tries to claim but drops the ball. Hazard is sniffing around, but can’t get to the loose ball before Fonte. The ball’s scrambled to the edge of the box, where Oscar shoots lamely.
Updated
80 min: Azpilicueta curls in a cross from the left. Van Dijk heads powerfully upfield. Fabregas, down the inside-left channel, has a lash from the best part of 40 yards. It’s miles wide right. Ward-Prowse goes in the book for an earlier tug on Oscar’s shirt.
78 min: Saints swap Tadic for Rodriguez. Pedro tries to control the ball down the left and lets it clank off his knee. Chelsea’s performance so far in a nutshell.
77 min: Falcao makes himself busy down the right, but can’t work Stekelenburg in the Saints goal. Chelsea’s attack is awfully blunt.
75 min: It should be four. Pedro gives the ball away in the midfield. Mane strides into the Chelsea half. He wrestles with Cahill, who is close to losing his rag and clumping Mane upside the head. His cool lost, he allows Mane to scoot free down the wing. Mane slides the ball inside for Tadic, who is on the penalty spot. He’s got Pelle to his right, but opts to shoot, and clatters the ball into an emergency-mode Terry. A wonderful defensive block. The resulting corner comes to nothing.
73 min: Mourinho’s response is to hook the substitute. Matic, looking puzzled, then embarrassed, and then irate, is replaced by Remy.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-3 Southampton (Pelle 72)
A loose ball in the middle of the park from Azpilicueta allows Mane to tear into the Chelsea half. He’s got Pelle on the right in acres. He slides the ball right. Pelle strides into the box and batters a stunning shot past an exposed Begovic. This is a proper crisis for Chelsea now.
Updated
71 min: Soares, Mane and Ward-Prowse flick the ball up and down the right. Wanyama thinks about shooting from 30 yards in the middle, but opts to rake the ball left for Tadic, who nearly bursts clear but is ushered away from danger by Ivanovic, suddenly looking like his old self. Southampton are well on top.
68 min: Tadic is caught from behind in a fairly agricultural style by Ivanovic as he races down the left wing. A free kick, and another chance for Saints to load the Chelsea box. Ward-Prowse curls it long towards the penalty spot. Terry hammer-heads it clear. Ward-Prowse tries his luck from 40 yards. Nope! But it’s Saints looking the most likely right now.
66 min: Falcao clatters into Mane, a reckless slide from the side. He’s lucky to escape a booking. Tadic takes the free kick, 35 yards out down the right, and nearly sends a daisycutter into the bottom right. It’s not far wide of the post. Chelsea are living dangerously here. “A mention of that Keith Houchen goal always gives me a warm glow,” shudders Shaun Wilkinson. “That was the first football game I ever remember watching. (I was seven at the time). Has there been a better cup final since?” I can field this one: nope!
64 min: Pedro comes on for Willian. The Brazilian’s free kick seems an awful long time ago right now. But what a free kick it was.
63 min: Oscar and Fonte come together in the Saints box and fall over. No penalty here either, because Oscar had accidentally stood on Fonte’s foot.
62 min: On the touchline, Jose Mourinho allows himself a wry smile. That penalty incident involving Falcao will be playing on his mind. The rights and wrongs will long be debated, but even if Chelsea were hard done by - and it’s not clear - Southampton are still one decision in credit on that score.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-2 Southampton (Mane 60)
Terry is back, and he’s been rolled by Mane. Pelle cuts in from the left, and slides a diagonal ball inside. Terry should intercept, but Mane turns him. The striker’s clear in the box! His shot squirts under Begovic, who tried his best to smother, and trundles over the line. One way or another, Saints deserve this lead. Chelsea are really up against it now.
Updated
57 min: Another penalty controversy, and this time Chelsea were asking the question. Falcao powers past Fonte down the inside-left channel and into the area. Stekelenburg comes out rashly, spreading himself. Falcao goes over the keeper and the crowd explode in their demand for a spot kick. But the referee isn’t having it. He thinks Falcao was going down looking for it, just before he came into contact with the keeper. And books the striker as a result. You have certainly seen those given, mind.
Updated
56 min: Van Dijk channels his inner Franz Beckenbauer, storming down the left channel, ignoring a few half-arsed Chelsea challenges. He slips the ball towards Mane, who tries to twist a shot away from a tight spot, but can’t manage it.
54 min: Chelsea respond to the increase in volume with an increase in intensity. Oscar scuttles to win a corner down the left. Fabregas whips the set piece to the near post, Wanyama clearing off the line. The ball’s worked in again from a deep position on the left, Falcao flinging himself towards the ball with a view to replicating Keith Houchen’s famous 1987 FA Cup final effort. Not quite. But this is better from the home team, who have otherwise been abysmal since the half-hour mark.
53 min: Azpilicueta combines with Hazard down the left, the full back doing his best to tilt the balance of this game. He nearly breaks clear into the area, but Soares is across to block. The home crowd, fully aware that their team are in a little trouble here, shorn of confidence, raise the volume in support.
51 min: But those serious problems shouldn’t take anything away from Saints, who are playing wonderfully well. Mane scampers in from the left and very nearly releases Pelle with a lovely flick down the channel, but Chelsea shut the door quickly this time.
49 min: Davis has the run of Hammersmith & Fulham. First he nearly slips Mane free down the middle. Cahill intercepts. Then he sends Tadic down the left. The ball is slipped inside for Mane, who extends a leg but can only guide his shot into Begovic’s coupon. The ball breaks wide left for Tadic, who feeds Mane for another skelp from a tight angle on the left. Begovic parries again. Then Tadic turns Ivanovic in a tight spot on the left, rolling the ball inside for Mane to take another shot from the penalty area. That’s blocked, and then Ward-Prowse shoots wide right. This is absurd. What has happened to Chelsea? Porto did this rat-a-tat pinball nonsense against them during the week, too. Serious problems here.
47 min: A slow-ish start to the second half. Neither team willing to show their hand quite yet.
And we're off again!
Both teams make a change. Chelsea swap Ramires with Matic, bolstering the defensive quality of their midfield, not least because the man hooked had been booked. Southampton meanwhile replace Romeu - also booked - with the more attack-minded Ward-Prowse. Saints are going for this!
Half-time entertainment: The greatest goal of all time? Almost certainly, yes.
HALF TIME: Chelsea 1-1 Southampton
Nope! The ball is blootered straight into the Saints wall. And that’s the last act of the first half. After a slow start, Saints are deservedly level. Chelsea perhaps are more fortunate, when you factor in Southampton’s two penalty shouts for Ivanovic’s shirt tug on Van Dijk and Ramires’ lazy challenge on Mane. Jose Mourinho has quite the half-time team-talk ahead of him, because Chelsea forgot how to play after the half hour, and another poor result will make the upcoming international break feel very long indeed. The second half promises to be quite something. You’re not going anywhere, are you?
Updated
45 min +1: But this is better from Chelsea. A few passes stroked this way and that, in front of the Saints box. Oscar drops a shoulder down the inside-left channel, and is sent crashing by Wanyama. A free kick in a very dangerous position. Can the free-kick maestro Willian do it again?
45 min: Chelsea are in a bit of a tizz here. Passes aren’t sticking up front. Southampton appear to have used the Mane penalty incident as righteous fuel. Since that non-decision, 40 percent of the play has been in Chelsea’s final third.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Southampton (Davis 44)
This is a belter! A long diagonal ball from Soares on the right. Pelle chests it down on the left-hand side of the Chelsea D. Davis, rushing in, skelps an unstoppable shot into the bottom left! What a lovely goal. And it had been coming.
Updated
43 min: Ramires clips Mane in the centre circle. He’s booked on the totting-up process.
42 min: And they should be level. Mane powers his way across the pitch, right to left, 40 yards from goal. He spots Bertrand haring down the inside-left channel and flips a pass to the full back. Bertrand’s free in the box! He has to score! But Begovic is out to make himself big, and parries round the post for a corner. He again claims the set piece. Chelsea’s defence is still a worry.
Updated
40 min: The ball sails straight through the area to Wanyama on the right. He loops a ball into the box. It looks like fluking its way into the top left, but Begovic, running backwards at pace, claws it out, conceding another corner on the left in doing so. The second set piece is claimed with ease by the keeper. Southampton are in this game now, though.
39 min: Cahill drags Pelle to the ground under a high ball, 40 yards from goal. Davis chips a clever free kick down the inside-left channel. Van Dijk, rushing in, meets it with his head, guiding the ball into the six-yard box. Pelle is waiting to convert, but Cahill deflects out on the left for a corner.
37 min: Nobody can control the ball right now. A lot of puff and pressing.
34 min: Mane now goes past Ivanovic down the left. This one’s outside the box. Ivanovic hangs out a leg, Mane goes over it again. A light brush this time. Still probably a free kick, albeit the softest imaginable, but Ivanovic has left himself open to manipulation. The referee considers this one a blatant dive, though, and Mane goes in the book. He’s not had much in the way of luck in the last 90 seconds or so, has Mane.
32 min: Bertrand throws in from the left. Mane enters the area. He nudges the ball to the left and drops a shoulder to go past Ramires, who has hung a leg out. Mane cynically crashes into the outstretched leg and goes down. He was looking for it, but Ramires was daft enough to make the challenge. That should have been a penalty kick.
Updated
30 min: Hazard kneels on Soares’ shoulders with the two sailing through the air. That’s quite a feat. It should be a free kick, but Southampton aren’t getting one. The whole farce having been played out on the halfway, Saints getting the resulting throw, it really doesn’t matter in the long run.
28 min: All a bit scrappy right now. Saints are doing absolutely nothing in attack.
26 min: Bertrand is shoved off the ball by Willian in the midfield. No foul. Bertrand, on the floor and frustrated, lashes out at Willian with his boot. Well, you’ve seen players sent off for that, though it would have been a soft nonsense. The referee decides there wasn’t too much malice in the swipe, and brandishes just the yellow.
Updated
25 min: This is all Chelsea right now. Oscar holds the ball up on the left-hand edge of the area. He slides the ball back to Fabregas, who shuttles it down the channel again. Oscar has a little space in the area, and tries a curler into the top right. Stekelenburg plucks a softly hit effort out of the air.
24 min: Space for Hazard, who looks in the mood tonight. He’s in a clearing, 30 yards from goal. He tees himself up and sends a low shot fizzing straight at Stekelenburg. A mite disappointing.
22 min: Hazard, all twinkle toes, nips a ball down the right to set Oscar scampering into the area down the right. No opportunity to shoot, but Saints are light in the middle, where Falcao loiters. But he can’t flick the ball past Bertrand, forever on his shoulder.
21 min: A nice, brisk, breezy pace to this game. Hazard turns well down the inside-right and nearly finds Falcao in the middle. But Fonte sticks out a leg to divert the ball away from danger. Chelsea are enjoying a 60-40 share of possession.
20 min: Oscar, from a position down the inside-left channel, glides inside and looks for the top right from 30 yards. It just about finds the top-right corner of the stand behind the goal.
19 min: Begovic fluffs a kick upfield. The ball reaches Mane, 30 yards out down the Saints right. Mane looks for a curler into the top right. Nice idea, with Begovic off his line and out of position. But he doesn’t get enough OOF into the kick, and it sails softly into Begovic’s arms, the keeper having been given enough time to jog back to claim.
Updated
18 min: Tadic and Pelle combine neatly down the left wing, the former nearly sent into the box with the ball at his feet. But there’s a bit too much on the pass, allowing Cahill to step across and usher the ball back to his keeper.
16 min: Chelsea still don’t look comfortable at the back though. Now a big space opens up down the Southampton right, the normally dependable Azpilicueta caught infield. Davis romps clear into the area, but shanks an awful effort wide right, causing Begovic no concern whatsoever.
15 min: Oscar and Hazard exchange flicks as they skitter at speed down the middle of the park. Saints are backtracking in fear. Oscar enters the area but his shot is blocked at source by Soares.
13 min: In fact, replays show Van Dijk was livid because Ivanovic had a grip of the back of his shirt. A good claim for a penalty kick, that. What on earth was Ivanovic doing? A needless risk.
12 min: Ramires illegally shoulders Wanyama into touch down the left. Davis takes the free kick, on the paint, level with the front of the area. It’s not particularly good, straight into the arms of Begovic. In the middle, Van Dijk waves his arms around in semaphore shapes, spelling out the message WHY DID I BOTHER?
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Southampton (Willian 10)
This is a pearler of a free kick! Chelsea load the box, but they needn’t have bothered. Willian takes, 20 yards out, level with the left-hand edge of the area. He curls it high, back down, and into the top-right corner. Off the right-hand post. A stunning strike! Sheer brilliance! Stamford Bridge erupts! Just what a nervous-looking Chelsea needed!
Updated
9 min: Romeu has been brought in for extra defensive cover. He’ll be treading on eggshells now, though, having cynically taken down Hazard as the Chelsea man scooted down the left. Free kick. From which ...
7 min: A free kick for Saints in the middle of the park. Davis lumps it into the Chelsea box. Cahill, in a slight panic, eyebrows it out for a corner on the right. Tadic takes, and Begovic comes off his line to claim confidently. Though had Fonte not mistimed his run, level with the near post, the Saints striker would have had a free header. A huge hole in Chelsea’s defence there.
6 min: A rare old atmosphere at Stamford Bridge tonight. Tadic makes good down the inside-left channel and slips the ball inside for Pelle. Tadic wants an instant return, and if he got it, he’d have been free down the left. But the ball doesn’t come quickly enough, and Tadic is offside. Tadic is beside himself with anger at his team-mate. A chance to open Chelsea up there.
4 min: Ramieres catches Pelle on the ankle in the middle of the park. A pointless challenge, and one that’s running the risk of an early booking. But the referee isn’t in the mood for drama, and settles for a quiet word.
2 min: Chelsea are on the front foot early doors. Azpilicueta curls one into the area from the left. A decent cross, cleared in the half-arsed style by Wanyama. Ramires takes up possession in the middle of the park, drives forward then, blessed with space and time, and runners ahead of him, hoofs long down the left wing and out of play.
Updated
And we're off!
Chelsea get the ball rolling. The 14-second mark comes and goes without incident. Saints dragging their heels this time.
Here come the teams! John Terry leads his men out looking even more determined than usual, if that’s possible. A quick spin of this ...
... and once that’s done, we’ll be off in a minute.
Both of these clubs have sent their players out wearing some fine threads over the years. To be honest, I was hoping to find pics of Chelsea’s two-tone striped early-80s effort, Pat Nevin’s new romantic wedge, all that, and Southampton’s irregular red-and-white bars from the late 1970s. But these will do! Here’s Chelsea’s iconic all-blue strip from the early 1970s ...
... and one of Southampton’s many weird and wonderful affairs from the 1980s.
Both teams will be sporting classic versions of their first-choice strip this evening. An aesthete’s delight.
Today’s half-and-half scarf: Here’s a happy young chappie holding up a brand-new soft acrylic treat.
A snapshot of carefree joy that should swell the heart. A young lad enjoying his big day out at Stamford Bridge. He’s got a lovely new scarf, and he’s over the moon about it! Magnificent. He’ll have a memento that’ll remind him of this day forever, and it should keep him warm with the evenings beginning to draw in to boot. Does he care whether his scarf contravenes the arbitrary Proper Supporter rules set out by fundamentalist bores? Nope! Not one solitary jot I’m afraid! Time for those bores to jog on, and leave this wee man and his pals to it.
The price of tickets these days, though, huh? The Football Supporters Federation is holding a national weekend of action to protest against the absurd cost of being an away supporter. Twenty’s Plenty. The aims? “Supporters call upon football clubs at all levels of the game to recognise and reward the amazing contribution of away fans by getting together to agree an across the board price cap on away match tickets of £20 (£15 for concessions).” Sounds like a plan. More details can be found here.
Chelsea fans wanted their captain back. Chelsea fans have got their captain back. All hail the power of the protest singer. John Terry returns, tasked with shoring up a defence that’s been all over the place recently. He can only do so much, though, and plenty rides on the performance of Branislav Ivanovic, who is looking worryingly fragile these days. Dušan Tadić represents another stern test. Up front, in Diego Costa’s absence, it’s Radamel Falcao’s turn.
Southampton meanwhile had hoped to give Jordy Clasie his first Premier League start, but he’s not quite ready yet. Ryan Bertrand continues his comeback from injury after completing 90 minutes last week, and starts against his old club. And Oriol Romeu returns to the starting XI, as Saints look for their first win at Stamford Bridge since January 2002.
The teamsheets
Chelsea: Begovic, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Fabregas, Willian, Oscar, Hazard, Falcao.
Subs: Blackman, Zouma, Baba, Matic, Loftus-Cheek, Pedro, Remy.
Southampton: Stekelenburg, Soares, Fonte, van Dijk, Bertrand, Romeu, Wanyama, S Davis, Tadić, Mané, Pellè.
Subs: K Davis, Yoshida, Long, Rodriguez, Martina, Ward-Prowse, Juanmi.
Referee: Robert Madley (Wakefield)
Updated
Good evening!
Diego Costa. Everyone wanted him banned. But it’s not as much fun when he’s not playing, is it? The world’s most entertaining man. Bah.
Never mind. This could still be quite a ride. For all eyes are on Chelsea, as the champions struggle desperately for form. The chief problem: Jose Mourinho’s side are a defensive shambles. Break that statement down: a Mourinho side; a defensive shambles. Eh? Who’d have predicted this? Black is white. Up is down. The world off its axis. One clean sheet in 12 domestic matches, though!
“I define it the worst period in my career with the worst results in my career,” says the man himself. It’s unlikely Mourinho is planning to put up with this state of affairs for too much longer, so it’ll be interesting to see what team he picks this evening for the potentially awkward visit of Southampton. Especially as Chelsea’s supporters, having witnessed Porto raining shots on their goal midweek in the Champions League, have been demanding “their captain back” via the medium of song. God how they miss him.
Chelsea will certainly need to rediscover some of the old solidity this evening. That’s because Saints - who didn’t start the season in particularly convincing fashion themselves - appear to have stumbled into goalscoring form. They scored a couple against Manchester United in an entertaining 3-2 defeat. They rattled six past unconscionable usurpers Franchise FC in the League Cup. And they stuck three in Swansea City’s net last week, no mean feat.
If that’s not enough to give Saints belief, how about this: since returning to the top flight, Saints have drawn two of their three matches at Stamford Bridge. They lost the other one, granted, but still gave Chelsea one hell of a fright that day, scoring after a mere 14 seconds. Confidence shouldn’t be an issue for the visitors, then. It might be for the home team, though. Which makes it perfectly set up for a thriller. Your tea will be ready in a minute. But it’ll have to go cold. Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is on!
Kick off: 5.30pm.
Updated
