Amid fan protests, Chelsea return to fourth in the league with 4-0 rout of relegation-haunted Southampton
By Paul Lagan at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea 4 v Southampton 0
39,485
Chelsea demolished bottom of the table Southampton with a four goal salvo that put them back into fourth place in the Premier League. But it wasn't a sparking performance.
Chelsea simply had too many better attacking players, while the defensive four and occasional three were more than enough to squeeze the heart and enthusiasm out of the Saints attackers.
It was a desperately needed three points for Chelsea to stem the tide of dropping points.
Even when going 1-0 up, there was a sense that, like against Aston Villa at the weekend, and others before, the Blues could give the game and points away.
But this Southampton, while having good players, simply made too many mistakes when under pressure to make that a serious possibility.
Four different goalscorers helped – Chelsea are without any striker worthy of the name, and Pedro Neto, and then a rotation of players filled in the attacking spaces.
Christopher Nkunku, Neto, Levi Colwill, gave the Blues a decisive 3-0 first half lead. Marc Cucurella picked up the baton in the second.
As opening phases of games go this was very much in the tepid, almost bordering on cold.
The Saints kept their ball well while the Blues tried a little too eagerly to impress, inevitably falling a bit flat.
Jaydon Sancho opted for a shot, which zipped across the Saints goal, from the right byline position on 10 minutes. But it was never going to connect to a Chelsea player because there was no one in position to receive it.
With Chelsea dilly-dallying with the ball at the back, the inevitable thump up field was quickly intercepted and the ball passed to Paul Onuachu. The giant striker took one touch before letting fly with a right-footer.
Perhaps summing up their season , the ball ended up in row Z of the Matthew Harding stand behind the Chelsea goal. The forward was even on the end of a speculative cross but was unable to get much power from his head to trouble Filip Jorgensen.
Cole Palmer had a strike, on 37 minutes, but it went wide. The Blues had no chance on goal in that time, whereas bottom of the table Saints had two
Cole then broke free with a one on one with Aaron Ramsdale but, whereas a couple of months ago, he would have tucked home successfully, this time Ramsdale blocked the effort for a corner.
But from the resultant kick, the Blues went ahead. A knock-on by Tosin saw Christopher Nkunku at the far post and he nodded home.
Out came his celebratory blue balloon which he blew up. He had tucked in a sock, just for the occasion.
Saints were desperately unlucky not to equalise when Onuachu outjumped Levi Colwill to get a header on target. Jorgensen somehow managed to scrape the ball away from goal with an acrobatic dive.
Some smart inter change of play saw the Blues with a golden chance to double the lead, but he curled a low, left-footer wide of the Saints goal.
But the second was not far behind and it was a lovely counter-attack started at the back, Saints were cut apart with one swift- on-touch passing which saw Neto free on the left and he blasted a venomous left-footer past Ramsdale on 36 minutes.
Jut before the break and it was number three.
A bog-standard free-kick by Neto dropped straight on the head of Colwill and he directed the ball into the bottom of the Saints net.
It was one of the simplest goals possible from a set-piece, but effective.
Early second-half pressure by the now confident Blues saw Ramsdale tip over an u challenged header from Nkunku.
Tyrique George and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall came on for Sancho and Neto.
George's first shot inched wide of the Saints goal.
The half was largely boring, but eventually a bit of class told and following a quick break which saw the Saints defence exposed to six attacking Chelsea players, the ball was fed square to Marc Cucurella who took a touch before ramming home from 10 yards out with his left foot to male it 4-0 with 10 minutes left on the clock.
Josh Acheampong and Mathis Amougou had a few minutes on the pitch, replacing Moises Caicedo and Nkunku.
They were followed by Shumaira Mheuka for Enzo with the game just about over.
Teams: Chelsea: Jorgensen, Cucurella, Tosin, Colwill, Neto, Enzo, Nkunku, Sancho, Palmer, Caicedo, Gusto
Subs: Sanchez, Dewsbury-Hall, James, Fofana, George, Acheampong, Amougou, Samuels-Smith, Mheuka
Southampton: Ramsdale, Walker-Peters, Downes, Aribo, Smallbone, Bree, Sugawara, Fernandes, Sulemana, Onuachu, Bella-Kotchap
Subs: McCarthy, Manning, Step[hens, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Archer, Gronbaek, Dibling, Welington
Referee: Thomas Bramall
Comments