Premier League Match 21 - Chelsea 0 Southampton 0

Two of the Main Reasons This Ended 0-0

Chelsea at Stamford Bridge where are usually get smashed apart from that fantastic Pellé and Mané inspired 3-1 win we had there a few years ago when Chelsea had a season off when they were trying to get rid of Mourinho. Regardless of that, we were absolutely brilliant that day. The last few times we have played Chelsea we have been absolutely smashed by one player, Eden Hazard. There is a school of thought that if you stop him then you stop Chelsea but we’ve never proved that true because we’ve never actually managed to stop him and in the last few matches and he has something like a seven goal involvements with either the goal all the assist. The job of marking him today is likely to fall on either Yan Valery or Kayne Ramsay. Good luck with that.

The suspicion that Ralph Hasenhüttl this game is more winnable than the Manchester City home game was confirmed with the team selection, seeing the return of the recognised first choice front three and also with Yoshida and Vestergaard returning to the defence. There was also a place in midfield for James Ward-Prowse in place of the suspended Hojbjerg and Mario Lemina was nowhere to be seen, injured we assume. There was a place on the bench for Callum Slattery for the first time who was earmarked as being some sort of wonderkid about three years ago so it is about time that he made some sort of impact. The headline news however was in goal where Alex McCarthy, despite keeping the score down against Manchester City was left out in favour of Angus Gunn. This is a massive call. You could argue that McCarthy has let in a questionable goals against Huddersfield, West Ham and Manchester City or it could be that Ralph wants to have a look at Gunn before the transfer window madness really commences.

Talking of the transfer window, we are of course expecting Manolo Gabbiadini and Steven Davies to leave but one who was expected to leave, mainly because he hasn’t featured for Ralph, was Cedric but he was back in the side today at left back in place of the injured Matt Targett.

Chelsea line up 4-3-3 with Kante, Jorginho and Barkley in midfield. I am really unconvinced by Sarri’s plan to turn Kante into an attacking midfielder when he is the best defensive midfielder in the world. If Barkley has a shithouse of a game which he is prone to do, then it could go well for us. Up front with Hazard is Willian and Morata who, despite scoring against us at St Mary‘s and against us in the FA Cup semi-final last year, is bollocks and not the sort of player you want if you want to be competing at the top end of tables and looking to win trophies. He is playing because Good Looking Suave Bastard Olivier Giroud, with his 400 career goals against Southampton, is out with an injury to his eyebrows and designer beard.

The early danger came from the usual source with Hazard out on the left.  His ball in was heading towards Willian but Gunn came flying out and pushed it away – a decent start for the keeper.  To be honest, we’re just digging in and not doing much going forward but we’re restricting Chelsea pretty well.  They go long to Morata from deep and his header is on target and would have reached the goal on it’s 4^th bounce which is what tends to happen when you head it off your face from 20 yards.

At the other end, Ings shows Morata how to head a ball powerfully but his effort from a left footed Cedric cross flies over the bar.  The Ings chance is just a bried respite from Chelsea pressure and Gunn has to be alert to save Hazard’s blast with his forehead after their only threat latches on to a Rudiger chip forward.

Half time and we’ve done well.  Romeu and JWP have absolutely dogged it in the middle of the park, keeping Barkley out of the game and Sarri has had to take Willian off and brought on Loftus-Cheek.  Personally, I’m delighted to still see Fabregas on the bench and the longer he stays there and the longer Morata stays on the better.  Ralph makes a change at half time and it’s Shane Long for Ings and until we sign a new quick attacker or one of Gallagher or Obafemi gets fit – this is how it’s gonna be.

As tends to be the way after a Ralph team-talk, we start the second half well and actually have some possession in the Chelsea half.  Armstrong tries his luck with a curler from 25 yards but Arrizabalaga saves well down low and so he should for £76 million or whatever it was.  There’s an exchange of efforts by each teams’ talisman with Hazard cutting in a forcing Gunn into a save at his near post and then Shane Long having a go from distance and hitting a window on the 30^th floor of the Chelsea hotel.

Jorginho is a very neat and tidy player but doesn’t do much going forward but he has a go from the edge of the box and Gunn nonchalantly catches it above his head.  Barkley has stunk the place out tonight and he’s off for Fabregas.  Within 5 minutes he’s nearly won it for them, liking with Hazard before expertly putting Morata through with a perfect pass and though he bobbles it into the net, he’s offside…. Bloody close but just offside.

Into the last 5 now and we’re still looking solid until we somehow allow Chelsea to break on us but we’ve left Morata free as there’s no point marking him and his half-arsed effort is easily saved by Gunn.  Morata then starts moaning at Fat Jon Moss that Gunn is holding onto the ball too long and then he moves in front of him to stop him kicking it out.  Thick twat.

Austin is on for Armstrong as we try to run down the clock.  Charlie is ideal for this as it takes him so long to jog onto the pitch. 92, 93 and panto villain Marcos Alonso who hasn’t been a prick today, decides it high time he was and takes a horrible dive under the slightest brush from Long and Fat Jon mercifully doesn’t give it.  There is just time for Alonso to try from range which Gunn again saves easily and there is just time for another time-wasting substitution as Stephens comes on for Redmond, doesn’t touch the ball and Fat Jon has had enough.

And we got there and boy did we deserve it. An absolute vindication for the team selection against Manchester City. Firstly, the goalkeeper. I have to admit that I would not have dropped McCarthy myself as he has not committed any absolute howlers but Angus Gunn was superb in everything that he did. Ralph was asked about him after the game and indicated that he picked Gunn because he was quicker off his line than McCarthy is and that Chelsea tried to chip a lot of balls over the defence in front of the keeper. I have never, in my 40 odd years of watching football known of a manager pick a specific goalkeeper to cater for an opposition teams tactics. Maybe I’m making too big a deal out of this but I think it’s really quite something.

All three of the central defenders were absolutely superb. Bednarek (along with Valery) had the job of keeping Hazard quiet which of course you can’t do for 90 minutes but he had a superb game, as did Vestergaard on the other side. The main man though was Maya Yoshida who won every tackle, and every header that he went for. Cedric, who I never expected to see into Southampton shirt again, put in a really solid performance at left back and Valery looked all the better for his rest against City. There was a cohesion about our defending and a concentration level which lasted for the full 95 minutes. There were no fuck-ups and no people getting caught out of position. We stayed tight and compact and didn’t give Chelsea many opportunities at all. Also, we had a bit of luck for a change because the Morata offside was very very close. Don’t even talk to me about the pathetic Alonso penalty dive in the last minute bearing in mind what happened to us against City.

Another pleasing thing for me was that JWP played in the centre of midfield all game and looked like he belonged and looks like he believed he belongs in the team. Whilst Pierre is suspended, he really has to keep going and keep Lemina on the sidelines. Armstrong and Redmond both had a really good games, the only issue being the odd misplaced pass which butchered a few breaks that we might of had. Upfront, we are a bit of a worry. Danny Ings doesn’t look remotely capable of playing 90 minutes at the moment but he is all we have as far as goal threat is concerned.

Chelsea were unsurprisingly average with Hazard having a quiet game by his standards and I was amazed and pleased that Sarri left it as long as he did to introduce Fabregas. With both Kante and Jorginho in midfield there is not a lot of creativity and Barkley was pretty ineffective as well. Still, they have just paid £50 million quid for a winger who they can afford to loan back out to the club they bought him from for the rest of the season so let’s not feel too sorry for them. What fucking world are they living in?

Results elsewhere meant we dropped into the bottom three but it really is no cause for alarm. We are playing better and you can see we are getting better and we will climb the league as the season goes on. This transfer window promises to be interesting and I expect us to do a lot of the clearing out that should’ve been done in the summer. The difference is now that I think we have a manager who everyone trusts and if we let Ralph lead the way regarding players in and out then I am fairly confident that we won’t go far wrong.

Next up is Derby in the FA Cup followed by Leicester away in the League. All aboard...