Southampton 0-2 Chelsea, Player Ratings: All-around excellence

The focus of this game's player ratings shifted from midfield to attack.  Not that the midfield was not good — on the contrary! — but after back-to-back-to-back Man of the Match awards for N'Golo Kanté, Eden Hazard stepped back in to claim the top spot.

It's his third Man of the Match vote win of the season; at the quarter-way point of the season, he already has more than half the total of his Man of the Match wins from last season (and in fewer available games).

Another welcome change in this game from Eden, in a season of welcome changes, was his willingness to take on players and not shrink away from contact.  He's always been one of the most fouled players in the league and afforded scant protection from the referees, so it's somewhat understandable, especially amidst all his nagging injuries last season, that he'd develop a habit of shying away more and more from direct contact.  Not in this one though!  This was vintage Hazard more often than not, direct, creative, and always threatening.

Costa hit his 40th league goal for Chelsea in this one, which, for whatever reason, has been deemed a milestone.  I have no idea what makes 40 goals special, but getting there as the sixth fastest player in league history is special indeed.

Diego Costa is the 6th fastest player to score 40 goals in the PL 9 games faster than it took Thiery Henry. pic.twitter.com/KL1uYwvbfZ

— ️ (@AddictedToCFC) October 31, 2016

Another mildly interesting milestone is that this was Costa's 45th goal in Chelsea colors, which equals the total goals scored by one Fernando Torres.  (I know, I didn't think he scored that many either!)  Of course, what took Torres 172 appearances (I know, I repressed about 160 of those as well), has only taken Costa 90.

We're written a fair bit about Moses in recent days, and will no doubt write a fair bit more in the coming days, but his Opta dashboard speaks just as loudly, if not louder.  A thousand words and all that.

Victor Moses was a one-man wrecking crew on the right flank. pic.twitter.com/HZeYMG2oBK

— Dávid Pásztor (@D_Peezy) November 1, 2016

Tackles and clearances on the left (in defense), take-ons and passes into the box on the right (in attack), basically doing the job of two men, and doing them both quite well.