- Premier League champions Chelsea's limp title defence continued with a 3-1 defeat at home by Southampton
- Willian put the Blues ahead, scoring a free-kick on 10 minutes but Saints turned things round
- Steven Davis, Saido Mane and Graziano Pelle scored the visitors' goals to see Chelsea 16th in the table
Jose Mourinho has tried it all. He has criticised his players and questioned their attitude. He has then back pedalled and killed them with kindness, defending them after defeats. He has dropped some players and left others back in London when the team was in Portugal.
On Saturday, he went for restoring club captain John Terry to the line-up, to no avail; he was hopelessly exposed again. Then he brought on Nemanjic Matic at half time and took him off again after 28 minutes. Humiliated, Matic wasn’t even offered a handshake from his manager.
But it doesn’t really what he tries, what trick he tries to pull. None of them are working at present. Chelsea are abysmal. They have lost four times in the Premier League this season, won just twice and conceded 17 goals. Last season they lost three, and conceded 32 all season. This is not so much a title defence as a humiliating abdication before the autumn leaves have stated to fall.
Southampton attacking midfielder Saido Mane gets a shot away to score his side's second goal against the Blues at Stamford Bridge
Yesterday the crowd even booed his substitutions at Stamford Bridge, especially that of Matic. It seems they weren’t buying the gesture politics. Defensive solutions would be more appropriate but one of the great coaches of his generation can find none at present.
At which point you begin to question whether these players want to dig their manager out of this hole. It seems extraordinary to suggest as much when but five months ago they were parading down the Fulham Road with the Premier League title. Yet they play as if they are unconcerned at the growing crisis enveloping Stamford Bridge.
What made it all the more bizarre was that the evening had started well for Chelsea. The lethargy of the Porto performance was initially replaced by an energetic intensity. Notably Oscar, left at home in midweek, and Hazard, dropped in porto, were insatiable in their appetite to close down Southampton players and get on the ball themselves. It was much more like the Chelsea of last season; even more so when Willian opened the scoring on ten minutes.
In fact, it was rather like the Chelsea of last week, the Brazilian repeating his trick of curling in the ball from a lengthy free kick thirty yards out. What looked like a magnificent cross had sufficient spin on it to curl and curl on t the post and in the net past the despairing out-stretched arm of Stekelenburg. It was rather magnificent; being Brazilian, the odds were he meant it.
Chelsea seemed much more at ease with the world. When Fabregas and Oscar exchanged crisp passes inside the box and the Brazilian struck a shot goal-wards which Maarten Stekelenburg grasped out of the air, it seemed as though some of the joie de vivre of the title-winning might be returning.
It didn’t last. Chelsea can’t deliver over 45 minutes at present, let alone 90. Slowly Southampton eased themselves back into the game and Sadio Mane began to torment in the manner in which Porto’s players had in midweek.
It was to referee’s Robert Madley’s discredit that he didn’t award the excellent Senegalese a penalty on 30 minutes when clumsy Ramires felled him. It was to his shame that he booked him a minute later, when Ivanovic felled him and he was deemed to have dived.
Like most of Ivanovic’s opponents this season he was simply much too quick for the Serbian. The diving directive is all well and good in theory; in practice it is almost impossible to police with the naked eye.
Victor Wanyama then tested Begovic with a swirling cross which threatened to drop in under the cross bar. By now Chelsea had conceded the initiative and would never recover it.
They dropped deep and failed to compete as they had in the opening quarter of the game. So little surprise when Jose Fonte lofted a long ball which Graziano Pelle chested down quite superbly into the path of Steven Davis. The quality of his half volley matched the assist; Begovic barely saw it.
Having conceded, Chelsea could not re-adjust to their previous superiority. Mane by now was thoroughly enjoying himself, his pace and movement pulling Chelsea one way and another. Begovic denied him sliding in on 48 minutes and Ivanovic blocked him as the ball rebounded. Ward-Prowse then struck wide from the corner.
Chelsea felt aggrieved when Fabregas’ lovely through ball saw Falcao felled by Stekelenburg – the Colombian stated his fall a fraction top early and received a yellow card instead of the penalty he might have won had he not been so eager to fall into the challenge.
Yet, the pattern of the game was emerging. Chelsea were struggling, Mane was in the ascendancy. So when on the hour, when Pelle was allowed by Gary Cahill to play in a dangerous looking ball, which Terry completely misjudged with his sliding interception and Mane found himself clear on goal, the result was inevitable,. The Senegalese cooly dispatched the finish and then proceeded to celebrate in ecstatic fashion in front of the Southampton fans.
Mane then was fouled by Falcao, the Colombian fortunate not to attract a second yellow. And on 70 minutes, came the denouement. Hazard gave the ball away in midfield and Mane sprinted away, through the Chelsea defence and released Pelle wide on his right.
The Italian looked up, shot and finished superbly from just inside the box. Chelsea had been well beaten again. More worrying, they look wholly incapable of halting their decline.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Begovic 7, Ivanovic 4, Cahill 3, Terry 5, Azpilicueta 6.5, Ramires 5 (Matic 45 (Remy73 )), Fabregas 4, Willian 6.5 (Pedro 65), Oscar 6, Hazard 5, Falcao 3
Subs not used: Zouma, Baba, Blackman, Loftus-Cheek
Booked: Ramires, Falcao
Scorers: Willian 10
Southampton (4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg 5, Soares 6, Fonte 7, Van Dijk 7.5, Bertrand 6, Romeu 5 (Ward-Prowse 45), Wanyama 7.5, Mane 9 (Yoshida 92), Davis 7.5, Tadic 7 (Rodriguez 78), Pelle 8.5
Subs not used: Davis, Long, Martina, Juanmi
Booked: Bertrand, Romeu, Mane, Pelle
Scorers: Davis 43, Mane 60, Pelle 72
Referee: Robert Madley
Attendance: 41,642
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3258804/Chelsea-1-3-Southampton-Blues-nightmare-start-continues-Steven-Davis-Saido-Mane-Graziano-Pelle-score-stun-Premier-League-champions-Stamford-Bridge.html#ixzz3nZESvae1
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