As Southampton’s incredible run of form was brought to a close by a resilient Chelsea side yesterday as the Blues came away with a late winner to clinch a 2-1 win over Saints, a huge learning curve was experienced for Ronald Koeman’s men.
Saints were cruising through the first half with an excellent display and went in at the break 1-0 to the good thanks to a delightful lob from Shane Long.
However, it all went wrong in the second half as Chelsea punished two pieces of defensive naivety late on to snatch the win from Saints and take all three points back to London.
Here are five things that I feel as though we can take from the game.
Oriol Romeu is Saints' best defensive midfielder
Romeu has proved, time and time again, that he is the best man for the job in front of the Saints defence. His tenacity and hard-hitting style of play stands out in every game he plays and it is becoming increasingly surreal that he cost a mere five million pounds in the summer.
Dusan Tadic is being wasted
One thing that was hugely lacking in the second half was creativity; something that Tadic has plenty of. The Serbian has not been used at all in the last couple of matches and this, in my opinion, is a waste of his natural talents.
Charlie Austin is settling in well
Although Austin couldn’t quite score his first home goal for Saints yesterday, his work ethic and positional awareness gave us a taste of things to come as he looked very threatening throughout.
Focus simply must be retained throughout
Chelsea claimed the three points through two extremely soft goals, caused by slow reactions from Fraser Forster and his defence. This simply has to change if Saints are to progress.
Time is up for Graziano Pelle
It was yet another dreadful performance up front from Pelle, as although he was only on for the best part of 25 minutes, his display was nowhere near the standard asked of him. He looked sluggish, lazy and was wasteful in possession. Underwhelming.