Chelsea travel to the Saint Mary’s to face Southampton on the back of consecutive home defeats. The Blues are currently going down the curve after the last weekend’s 4-1 loss to Brentford was followed by another humiliation in the Champions League by Real Madrid.
Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel saw his side, who were on a six games winning run in the league capitulated to a lowly Brentford, whom themselves had won three in 13 before facing Chelsea, a run which included a six consecutive losses.
Despite taking an early lead in the second half, Chelsea never had the game under control but Thomas Tuchel and the boys might have thought it was just going to be another day where they will have the points in the bag after Brentford squandered a lot of clear cut chances in the opening half.
However, things turned very bad as they conceded four second half goals, becoming the first home side in the Premier League history to lose by three plus goal margin despite taking the lead, with all the goals coming in the second half.
They were hoping to bounce back from the weekend’s upset, which they would have counted as just a side effect of the international break as they hosted Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Chelsea have a very good record of never losing a competitive game against Los Blancos prior to that night and even bettered their opponent in the last four of the competition last season, sealing a 3-1 aggregate win after the 2-0 victory in London to progress to the final where they eventually beat City to claim their second Champions League success.
Real Madrid would however have their revenge of last season as they beat Chelsea 3-1 thanks to a Karim Benzema hat-trick. It was also the first time Edouard Mendy has conceded multiple goals in thr competition since signing for Chelsea.
Chelsea conceded four for the first time this season against Brentford and followed it up with another three, which is only for the second time this season. A number that will have Tuchel worrying ahead of the trip to Hampshire.
The goodnews for them is that their host, Southampton are also enduring a rough patch at the moment with zero win from their last five games, including four consecutive losses which ended in the last weekend’s draw at Leeds United.
Chelsea also have a good record on Southampton ground last losing there in March 2013, they are unbeaten in their last eight visits, winning six. This will give Thomas Tuchel needed confidence to bounce back with a positive result before their travel to Spain for the Champions League return leg with Madrid.
Thomas Tuchel will have almost everyone available except for Ben Chilwell, who is nursing a long-term injury while Calum Hudson-Odoi is not to return until later in the month.
A much needed game for Chelsea now as Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal are very close to them in the race for the top four and another slip up this weekend might be costly for their bid for a place in the Champions League next season.
Even if many believe they are well poised for qualification, recent showing has shown that they could be vulnerable as the run-in continues to heat up.
A win this weekend will ease the pressure on the team and up the team’s confidence ahead of facing Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
