OMG-Chelsea seeks redemption against Southampton

Embattled Chelsea man­ager, Jose Mourinho will be seeking to turn the fortunes of his team around as they face at home.

Chelsea’s malaise appears unending. They lost to Porto in midweek, have a manager who can’t stop picking fights with practically everyone at the club and remain without their star striker in Diego Costa. The visitors arrive fresh from beating Swansea 3-1 and should feel they can add to the champions’ woes by recording their first win at Stamford Bridge since January 2002.


Diego Costa’s fifth goal in his last six league matches gave Chelsea, seeking to capitalise on Manchester City’s surprise 1-0 defeat to Burnley on Saturday, an early lead, although that lasted just eight minutes thanks to Dusan Tadic’s penalty.

Ronald Koeman’s side threat­ened to add a second against a home side appearing somewhat fatigued following Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain.

However, while Jose Mourinho’s men were far from their fluent best, they always looked the more likely to grab a winner after the break, with Costa striking a post before Fraser Forster denied Willian, Eden Hazard and substitute Loic Remy.

Chelsea were ultimately un­able to break through, but now lead nearest rivals Man City by six points at the top of the table and still hold a match in hand.

Southampton are likely to be heartened by a point as they maintain their bid for a European place, while Mourinho will hope his side can rediscover their killer touch as they bid to make his prediction of BPL glory a reality.

Willian was one of two Chelsea changes and the Brazil­ian posed early problems for Southampton down the right, but it was Costa who opened the scoring 11 minutes in.

Branislav Ivanovic delivered a deep, first-time cross from the right following Hazard’s lay-off, and the unmarked Spain international had the simplest of tasks to head in his 19th goal of the season.

Southampton would have been level soon after were it not for a smart save from Thibaut Cour­tois that denied Sadio Mane.

However, after Mane had been brought down in the penalty area by Nemanja Matic, who received a yellow card for his mistimed challenge, Courtois was beaten by Tadic from 12 yards despite getting a foot to the ball.

The equaliser buoyed Koe­man’s side and the pace of Tadic, Mane and the recalled Shane Long caused John Terry’s back­line plenty of problems.