Saints were beaten 4-2 by league leaders Chelsea despite domination from the visitors in the first half.
Claude Puel’s men made two changes to the side that lost to Manchester City, as former Chelsea man Oriol Romeu returned from suspension and the in-form winger Nathan Redmond was surprisingly replaced by Sofiane Boufal.
Like the last meeting in October, Eden Hazard opened the scoring early on for the Blues, as Diego Costa pulled the ball back to the Belgian, who slotted the ball home nicely into the far corner.
Saints bounced back from the early setback, as Manolo Gabbiadini picked the ball up at the back post from a corner then played the ball into Romeu, who tapped it in from close range.
Saints dominated for the rest of the half, but Chelsea found a way through just before the half time whistle, as Marcos Alonso’s header was headed home by captain Gary Cahill.
Chelsea came back after half time looking revitalised, and Cesc Fabregas crossed the ball into Diego Costa, who headed powerfully past Fraser Forster not long after the restart.
The Blues dominated for the rest of game, and after some great passing play from them, Diego Costa was at the end of it all and slotted the ball into the bottom left corner.
The game was essentially over at this point, but that didn’t deny another former Chelsea player Ryan Bertrand a great header after a cross from Cedric Soares in the last minute of the game.
Here are five things we learned from the game on Tuesday:
