Chelsea will look to return to winning ways in the league after drawing with West Ham and Liverpool and they have a great opportunity to do so as they go away to relegation threatened and currently struggling Southampton. Chelsea have had great success playing Southampton recently and many think that they’ll be able to continue to do so!
Key Facts
Southampton are yet to win a home game this season. 2D 1L in 3.
Southampton have only won 1 league game this season out of 7 and they sit 16th.
Danny Ings is Southampton’s current top scorer with 3.
Southampton have only scored 6 goals in 7 league games. They failed to score a goal in 3 of those games already.
Southampton have failed to win in each of their last 25 matches against big 6 opposition. 7D 18L.
Chelsea are the only unbeaten English side in all competitions this season.
Chelsea currently sit 3rd in the league with 5W 2D 0L.
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard is the current top scorer in the league with 6 goals. He’s also got 2 assists.
Chelsea have scored 15 goals in 7 league games, they’ve only failed to score in one game this season.
Chelsea have beaten Southampton in 6 consecutive meetings. They won their last 3 here at St Mary’s most recently winning 2-3 last season after being down 2-0.
Eden Hazard has scored in 3 of his last 4 visits at St Mary’s.
Team News
Southampton: Southampton had a game in the Carabao Cup midweek were some key starters were rested despite that they did win. Shane Long, Bertrand and Elyounoussi are all expected to return to the starting line-up after missing out the clash against Everton in the cup with minor injuries. Mark Hughes still did use a lot of key players during the midweek however including Ings, Lemina, Redmond, Hojbjerg and Yoshida and they are all expected to start again this weekend. There may be a few worries that the team could be tired having to play so many games in such a short period considering they’re not used to do so.
Chelsea: Chelsea also took part in a midweek match, but Maurizio Sarri got to rest a lot more 1st team players in the Europa League against the Hungarian Mol Vidi. The whole back 4, Kante, Jorginho, Giroud did not feature at all for Chelsea while Hazard only played 40 minutes so he’ll be fresh too. Willian and Pedro did feature however and Sarri will have to choose between one of them to start on the right wing against Southampton. We saw Morata get on the scoresheet but Giroud is expected to start up front again in the league meanwhile Kovacic did play a full 90, but should start alongside Kante and Jorginho unless Sarri chooses to make a change and bring in Barkley or Loftus-Cheek who did impress midweek. Chelsea don’t have any injury concerns for this game.
Betting Tips and Predictions
Normally, backing a team after a Europa League is dangerous as they’re at a disadvantage, but in this case it doesn’t look like it. Southampton had to play a midweek game and used more 1st team regulars than Chelsea did and it seems like Southampton are the ones at a disadvantage in terms of lack of rest. Therefore, we’re going to back a Chelsea -1 AH at 2.05. Chelsea are clearly the far superior side, they’re playing much better football than Southampton who are clearly once again proving to be a complete disappointment. Southampton have been a better away side than they’ve been a home side this season so this home advantage won’t seem to matter. Chelsea have owned Southampton in recent meetings and it should be no different here. Eden Hazard is currently playing unstoppable football, it’d be hard to expect Southampton defenders to deal with him. Chelsea to win to nil at 2.75 is worth the look too if you like to take risks. Chelsea have been keeping clean sheets more frequently and Southampton’s attack have struggled this season so it’s a very likely scenario that they may not score. Our prediction is a 0-2 Chelsea win. Hazard to score again.
Match Odds (TonyBet)
Southampton Win – 5.85
Draw – 3.90
Chelsea Win – 1.65
KICK OFF – 7th October 2018 – 2:15pm UK Time
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