Southampton 0-3 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction

An utterly dominant Chelsea showed up at St Mary’s today, and the only real question was how soon and how many.

Southampton packed their own defensive third with all 11 men, and while they had a couple chances on the counter or when Chelsea gave the ball away — Ings missing a big chance in the first half; Kepa making a couple strong saves on long bombs — it was mostly a matter of Chelsea finding a finish.

Hazard, after Barkley won the ball back, and Barkley himself, after a set piece routine, duly obliged. Morata added the icing on the cake in added-on time.

Chelsea temporarily move to the top of the table, one point above Manchester City and Liverpool, who play each other at Anfield as we speak.

Carefree.

• Ross Barkley the one surprise in Chelsea’s starting lineup, with Kovačić, who played the full 90 on Thursday, getting a much needed rest.
• Morata for Giroud, Pedro for Willian, Kovačić for Barkley the standard changes
• Some seriously silly refereeing from Pawson
• Next up: international break
• KTBFFH

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