Chelsea 1 Southampton 3 – Five Talking Points

Champions Chelsea continued their horror start to this season as a prolific Southampton side put three goals past their shambolic defence. Willian grabbed an early opener for the Blues but it was all downhill from there on as Steve Davis equalized in the first half and Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle sealed the deal for Ronald Koeman’s boys in the second. We take a look at some of the major talking points of the match.

1. Outpaced, Outmuscled, Outgunned

Chelsea’s tearful show at the back continued in this game. Branislav Ivanovic, publicly backed by Jose Mourinho in midweek as “the best right back” at the club, produced another dreadful game as he was caught out on multiple occasions by the speedy runs of Sadio Mane, Grazianno Pelle and Dusan Tadic.

John Terry, starting this game for a change, was slow and his partner at the centre of defence, Gary Cahill made a terrible mistake which contributed to the second goal. Southampton weren’t just fast though, they also wrestled the ball off Chelsea’s sloppy midfielders producing many swift breaks which were thwarted only due to luck and a resolute Asmir Begovic in the Chelsea goal.

2. Mane of the Match

Sadio Mane was undoubtedly the man of the match in this one. Chelsea had no answers to his pace and skill. Ever since Davis equalised, Chelsea struggled to contain Mane and with Pelle providing the ammunition, it was only a matter of time before he scored. Mane also broke free to set up Pelle for Southampton’s third as Stekelenberg took a quick goal kick.

Pelle had acres of space on the right half of the pitch, and it was none other than Ivanovic who was to blame for this. Mane also set up Tadic later in the game to almost make it 1-4, but the Serbian saw his shot bounce off Terry’s back into the stands.

3. An unlikely source of goals

Willian’s beautiful goal was perhaps the only consolation for Chelsea in this game. The Brazilian scored with a peach of a free kick which beat Martin Stekelenberg to find the top corner. This was his third goal in three games, and coincidentally, all came from free kicks. Sadly, all of these goals have come in depressing circumstances- a 2-2 draw at Newscastle, a loss away to Porto and now this hammering at the Bridge.

4. Depression and Desperation

Chelsea now have only 8 points from 8 games, and lie just above the relegation zone in 16. They have equalled their worst start to a season since 1978, a season when they were relegated. Jose Mourinho has lowered his targets, now saying that they could finish fourth this year.

However, no team has managed to finish higher than 5 after this horrific a start to the season. He also said that his team have become fragile, losing confidence easily such as after the first goal in this match. Things are turning against them quickly and the Blues will need something truly magical to salvage this season, it seems.

5. Mourinho running out of excuses

Shockingly, yet, predictably, Mourinho chose to blame the referees for poor decisions rather than accept the blame for his team’s sad performance. He blamed penalty decisions and how they impacted his team’s psyche for the defeat.

His ramblings, once treated as the ravings of an eccentric genius, are becoming increasingly manical and Mourinho is running out of excuses. He also seemed to challenge the club hierarchy to sack him, a statement no Chelsea fan would have liked to hear, as it betrayed his fear rather than the composure they would have expected from their beloved “Special One” in their moment of crisis.