Southampton went to Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening full of confidence after two comprehensive wins in the last week, and were looking to capitalise on an extremely vulnerable Chelsea side, and did so with an excellent, disciplined victory over the reigning champions thanks to a superb second half display.
However, it was not all plain sailing for the Saints, as they encountered a fairly rocky start as Chelsea took the lead within 10 minutes of time, as Oriol Romeu brought down the oncoming Eden Hazard 30 yards from goal to give Chelsea a free kick and get himself his 4th booking of the Premier League season. Chelsea took advantage of the opportunity, as Willian managed to catch Maarten Stekelenburg off guard to find the top left corner of the Dutchman’s goal thanks to an audacious effort from the set piece, giving Chelsea a 1-0 lead.
Southampton felt hard done by in the first half, and rightly so, as they were denied two very clear penalties and Sadio Mane was wrongly penalised for a ‘dive’ under a challenge from Ivanovic. The first incident was clear, as Branislav Ivanovic was pulling on Virgil van Dijk’s shirt in the box, preventing the Dutch powerhouse from even moving. The second penalty claim came from Sadio Mane causing the Chelsea defence even more issues, as he went down under the tackle from Ramires in the Chelsea area. The penalty appeal was turned away, however replays clearly showed that the Brazilian midfielder tripped up Mane in the area, and Saints should have been awarded a penalty.
However, Chelsea got their just deserts as a minute before half-time; Steven Davis put away his first goal in Southampton colours for roughly two years. After a big ball was pumped up to just outside the Chelsea penalty box, Graziano Pelle chested the ball down for Steven Davis to strike on the half volley past the reach of Asmir Begovic to level the scoring at the break, with a wonderful goal from Davis, I must say.
At the break, Southampton made, what I felt, was a game changing substitution. The booked Oriol Romeu was substituted for James Ward-Prowse, in order to give Southampton a new dimension of play in the midfield and to keep Romeu available. With Romeu in the first half, they were able to remain narrow and keep their shape when defending and going forward, halting Chelsea’ efforts to go ahead, whereas in the second half, by using Ward-Prowse they were able to open up Chelsea a little bit more; a touch of genius from Ronald Koeman.
15 minutes after the restart, Southampton took the lead thanks to poor defending from Chelsea captain John Terry and tenacious work from Sadio Mane. Dusan Tadic carried the ball midway into the Chelsea half, before releasing the ball to Graziano Pelle 20 yards from goal. The big Italian then passed through a searching ball to Sadio Mane, who took advantage of a defensive error from Terry, as he nipped the ball behind him and into the path of Sadio Mane, who tucked the ball beyond Begovic to give Southampton a well deserved lead.
The Saints continued to press Chelsea, getting men forward on the counter attack and retaining possession well, before adding a third goal to their wonderful performance just 12 minutes later. Sadio Mane picked the ball up from inside his own half, and drove at the Chelsea defence with Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic busting a gut to get in support of the Senegalese on the left and right hand side. Tadic’s run managed to pull away the Chelsea defence, as did Mane’s direct running, before the Senegalese passed to his right to find Graziano Pelle, who needed just one chance to fire a goal in against Chelsea, as he powered the ball right into the bottom right corner of Begovic’s goal; a classic counter attacking move to extend the Saints’ advantage.
Southampton managed to see the game out in an assured and confident style and manner, despite Chelsea throwing everything at them, as their defence remained strong and saw off the threat of Chelsea to earn a historic and crucial 3 points to take into the international break.
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