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2022/23 English Premier League
Matchday 5
Southampton v Chelsea
St Mary's
Southampton, England
Tuesday, 30 August 2022
Kick-off is at 20h45
Chelsea will be targeting back-to-back wins in the
Premier League for the first time this season when they visit Southampton on Tuesday, August 30.
Thomas Tuchel's side bounced back from the shock 3-0 defeat to Leeds with a 2-1 victory over Leicester on Saturday, which saw Raheem Sterling open his account for his new club.
The former Manchester City winger (47', 63') bagged a second-half brace at Stamford Bridge to secure all three points for the Blues, although they failed to keep a clean sheet after Harvey Barnes (66') pulled one back for the Foxes.
The west Londoners sit sixth in the standings, five points behind leaders Arsenal, having won two, lost one and drawn one of their opening four matches.
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Tuchel was pleased to see Sterling get off the mark and admitted the goals were important for both the player and the team following the dismissal of Conor Gallagher on 28 minutes.
"Everybody is waiting for the goals, he is waiting for the goals, he is here to score and he is never shy to say it and take this responsibility," the German said.
"It's on us to give him the opportunities, but there is not one percent of doubt to do it because he has done it for years and years in this league. He is mobile, he is dangerous, he breaks the lines.
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"He struggled a little bit with his confidence and his dribbling [against Leicester], you could see it, then we were one man down and it was not obvious he would get chances to score, but he got three of them and scored twice. It was super important not only for us, but also for him individually."
The Saints suffered their second loss of the campaign on Saturday when they went down 1-0 to Manchester United on the south coast, courtesy of Bruno Fernandes' exquisite finish in the 55th minute.
However, Ralph Hasenhuttl can take heart from the performance of his players after they created numerous opportunities against the Red Devils, but were let down by a lack of composure in front of goal.
Southampton had gone unbeaten in their previous two outings in the league and occupy 13th place with four points collected from their four games.
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Hasenhuttl was delighted that his troops were able to compete against United, although he acknowledges they need to take their chances or suffer the consequences.
"This is also part of this beautiful game, that you sometimes do a lot of good things, do a lot of good work on the pitch but still don't get the result," the Austrian said.
"This is nothing that should let us worry because we have shown that we are competitive today. It was in the end some margins that we're missing for scoring goals and in the end one protection from the opponent decided this game. This can happen in football and especially against top teams, this happens.
"I think we played good against the ball; we didn't give them a lot of chances. We had been compact, we had some good moments with the ball, we created some good moments in the first half, some good chances in the second half.
"You always feel on the set-pieces we were dangerous today but dangerous alone is not enough. Next time we need to take this one goal, which is what we need."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Southampton - 1
Chelsea - 2
Draws - 2
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