Southampton vs Chelsea LIVE: Eden Hazard, Ross Barkley and Alvaro Morata secure comfortable victory
Southampton, who are yet to win at home this season, welcome unbeaten Chelsea to St Mary’s on Saturday afternoon.
Mark Hughes’ side are yet to impress this season, their solitary win coming at Crystal Palace before the international break, though they will be buoyed by their penalty shoot-out win at Everton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
Chelsea are in third place coming into the weekend’s action, and beat Hungarian champions Vidi in the Europa League on Thursday; the Blues can go top with a win before Liverpool play Manchester City later on in the day.
Another efficient victory from Chelsea to take them top of the table. Eden Hazard and Ross Barkley standouts in a dominant 3-0 win against a poor Southampton side.
A rather nasty looking lunge from Danny Ings, and that is a borderline yellow/red card. Craig Pawson opts for the former. A little lucky - it definitely could have been red. It is high and not particularly near the ball.
Four added minutes signalled, and Jorginho makes a well-timed challenge to prevent Ings scoring.
But Chelsea spring a counter-attack from the corner and Alvaro Morata should slot home!
Jorginho beautifully finds Eden Hazard with a cushioned volley and the Belgian drives at the defence, waiting to find Morata.
Morata is one on one with Alex McCarthy and chooses to try the near post, but the goalkeeper gets down well to stop it and grab the ball to prevent the follow-up.
Swerving, curving, twisting and turning in the air from 25 yards, and Kepa does so well to get his fingertips on it to divert it on to the bar and behind.
Southampton vs Chelsea kicks off at 2:15pm (BST) on Sunday 7th October.
Where can I watch it?
The match will be shown live on Sky Sports’ Main Event and Premier League channels from 1:00pm.
Sky Sports subscribers can also watch the game via the SkyGo app.
Highlights will be shown at 10:30pm on BBC One.
It’s a big game for…
Mark Hughes: The Saints boss has won just once at St Mary’s since taking charge last March, and will want a strong home performance against a team he has lost a Premier league record 19 games against as a manager. Southampton only escaped relegation in the final few weeks of last season, and need to make St Mary’s a formidable place for visiting teams once again - they’re currently only three points above the drop zone.
Mark Hughes has won only once since taking over in March (Getty)
Weird /best stat…
14: Southampton have only won one of their last 14 home league matches, a run which goes back to November 2017.
Remember when…
Although Southampton have lost their last six matches against Chelsea in all competitions, the Saints stunned the then-champions at Stamford Bridge as goals from Steven Davis, Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle clinched a 3-1 victory in October 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWelNSSGI-Y
Player to watch…
Olivier Giroud: The 32-year-old striker has history against Southampton in his brief Chelsea career. The Blues were 2-0 down in last season’s fixture, but the introduction of the Frenchman changed the game. He scored twice, and once in the FA Cup semi-final tie a week later. Since then, Giroud has nailed down the lone striker role, ahead of the misfiring Alvaro Morata, and despite not scoring yet in the Premier League this season, his link-up play with Eden Hazard has played a massive part in the Belgian’s terrific form.
Olivier Giroud is yet to score this season (Getty)
Past three-meetings…
Chelsea 2 (Giroud, Morata) Southampton 0, FA Cup Semi-Final, April 2018
Southampton 2 (Tadic, Bednarek) Chelsea 3 (Giroud 2, Hazard), Premier League, April 2018
Chelsea 1 (Alonso) Southampton 0, Premier League, December 2017
Form guide…
Southampton: WWDLLD
Chelsea: WWDWDW
Odds…
Southampton to win: 5/1
Chelsea to win: 3/5
Draw: 3/1
(Odds provided by 888 Sport)
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
