From Stamford Bridge – Chelsea put an end to a sequence of three consecutive defeats with a comfortable 4-0 walk at home in Southampton on Tuesday evening.
The goals of Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Levi Colwill before Marc Cucurella’s late strike made fun of the prediction of Enzo Maresca that it would be a “delicate” game. The Blues have struggled to train this calendar year, but their difficulties were overshadowed by those of visitors, who have now lost 12 of their last 14 Premier League games.
Chelsea’s victory brought them back to the top four, although Manchester City and Newcastle United can jump both west of London on Wednesday evening.
How the game went
“There is a huge difference between us,” sighed the increasingly cut head coach of Southampton, Ivan Juric. “It’s an incredible team with incredible players.” This quality chasm was not immediately apparent. However, after a 20 -minute nervous opening, Chelsea quickly struck their superiority.
Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer wandered between yellow Southampton’s garish shirt lines, picking up effortlessly as if they were playing between rows of neon cones.
Palmer had an effort at close range impressively suffocated by Aaron Ramsdale, although it simply led to the corner which produced the opening of Christopher Nkunku. Tosin Adarabioyo established a first contact on the delivery of Swing, the manager to the rear post so that Nkunku looks and nods after 24 minutes.
Southampton was not entirely toothless – the figure of wood of Paul Onuachu, a 6’7 striker who spends so much time fighting against his own members such as central defenders, Filip Jorgensen forced lead to two minutes except for the first half – but Chelsea was worth the lead with two goals, Pedro Neto provided ten minutes before the interval.
Operating once again as a central mobile attacker, the Portuguese striker on foot of the fleet rushed around the left shoulder of Nkunku while Chelsea caught Southampton in transition, exploding a first poisonous effort directly through Ramsdale.
Chelsea concluded their blitz in the first half with an impressive head by Levi Colwill, the original central defender of Southampton who still lives on the southern coast and goes to London. Maybe he will not set an elevator at home on the coach of the Saints team.
While a second flabby half served towards its inevitable conclusion, the Rarfelu Marc Cucurella delivered another torsion of the dagger in the lifeless corpse of Southampton. By placing a long-term counterattack in a corner of the saints, the left back with the wild hair of Chelsea kept its composure to control the measured reduction of Tyrique George and choose the lower corner.
Discover the notes of Chelsea vs Southampton players here.
When Chelsea faced Southampton in the reverse match on the south coast, fans of the outside section boasted in jubilation: “We have recovered our Chelsea.” The message behind the considerable protest that took place before Tuesday’s revenge match was simple: “We want our Chelsea to come back.”
Beyond their equally loose proceedings, the current club of the club could barely be more diametrically opposed to the reign in charge of the Abramovich trophy. While the Russian oligarch was ruthlessly endeavored to succeed immediately, in particular dismissing Roberto Di Matteo six months after winning the Champions League 2012, Maresca stressed several times that the club did not even aim for the qualification for the European club competition this season.
The Italian has been forced to go back to this pessimistic position in recent days, but by collapsing a historically atrocious iteration of a Premier League football club will not force the sheets to be put aside.
“Cole is a human being,” said Maresca on Monday to everyone. Palmer gave his own recycling lesson on this fact with a destructive display in front of an audience that remains with the worship of their playmaker.
After Palmer violently struck half a volume above the crossdale crossbar shortly before the hour, the last in a catalog of wandering torn and pushed back the shots, Stamford Bridge increased to salute the 22-year-old in a rairop of encouragement of 40,000 people.
Joe Aribo, a naturally attacker’s midfielder who sporadically appeared in the center-forward of the championship campaign last season and only made his second career appearance to the central defender, was responsible for scoring palmer men. Chelsea’s slippery Talisman has escaped the Aribo’s watch unsurprisingly, but wasted the perennial pocket of the space he transported with him.
Palmer’s drought of score is now in seven consecutive games – he has not created a goal for his teammates since December 1.
The beautiful score – and the efficiency of his teammates – assured that there were no lived exchanges by the playmaker Boudeux. All of Palmer’s frustration was reserved for himself when he finished the match with seven unsuccessful efforts to the goal.
In the space of less than two complete games as a central attack, Neto equaled the production of Nicolas Jackson through his last ten appearances before undergoing a serious injury to the hamstrings at the beginning of the month (one goal, two assists).
It was swept away by the negativity that overwhelmed the collapse of the second half against Aston Villa on weekends, but the unique nuisance of Neto nuisance stored the energy that Chelsea’s front line was missing in the absence of Jackson.
With Neto rushing around the central edge of the terrain, Nkunku looked much more comfortable to derive from the left side with palmer supplying a front line completed by Jadon Sancho on the right wing.
Joric openly admitted that he was already trying to “create something good for the future”. However, Southampton still has work to do in the current campaign to avoid becoming the worst team in the history of the Premier League.
The 2007/08 Derby County team holds this particular wooden spoon with a lean total of 11 points. Like Southampton, the Rams have collected nine points of their first 27 games and had conceded 57 goals – eight less than the saints.
Southampton just needs a victory – or three prints – to avoid this dark statistical ignominy, but from which these results come seem desperately clear. The external end to Stamford Bridge was at least half the right in his assertion: “You are nothing special, we lose every week.”
A trip to Anfield is their next league outing before a Wanderers Wolverhampton Revigorated in St Mary’s before the international break next month. A visit to the city of Leicester City on May 3 will still be in red.
