Southampton 1–5. Chelsea: The Blues defeat the Saints by ten players to take second place in the Premier League

A significant shift After defeating bottom-place Southampton 5-1, who saw captain Jack Stephens sent off for yanking Marc Cucurella's hair, Chelsea fell seven points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Despite making seven changes for the trip to St. Mary's, the Blues put on a strong attacking performance that will only heighten speculation about a possible title push this season as they climbed up to second place.

Axel Disasi, Christopher Nkunku, and Noni Madueke, the three substitutes, all scored goals in the first half.

But just four minutes later, Joe Aribo sprinted past Chelsea custodian Filip Jorgensen, who was making his Premier League debut, to promptly cancel out Disasi's header in the seventh minute.

Madueke, however, cut off custodian Joe Lumley's careless pass in the 17th minute, allowing Nkunku to roll into an empty net. This was Southampton's ninth Premier League blunder that resulted in a goal this season.

The Saints' night took a turn for the worst five minutes later when captain Stephens yanked Cucurella's hair at a Saints corner and was sent off for aggressive behaviour after a VAR review at the pitchside monitor. Madueke then curled in a third in the 34th minute.
 
After that, Chelsea dominated the game and eventually got a fourth goal through a tap-in from Cole Palmer in the 77th minute.

With a late fifth goal for his first Chelsea goal, substitute Jadon Sancho helped Enzo Maresca's team go seven games undefeated across all competitions. On Sunday, they will play rivals Tottenham of London.

Southampton, on the other hand, is currently seven points outside of safety.

Free-scoring Chelsea keeps getting better.

Chelsea has already scored seven more goals this season (57 in 22 games) than they did in 2022–2023 (50 in 50 games) across all competitions. Their current season-long goals-per-game ratio of 2.6 is the highest in their history.

For the first time since 2014–15, Chelsea has scored five goals or more in two away Premier League games this season (6-2 vs Wolves, 5-1 against Southampton). Their xG total in the victory over Saints was the best ever by a side in an away Premier League match (2008–09 onwards) (5.29).

Maresca's adoring shouts for Chelsea
Enzo Maresca, the head coach of Chelsea, discussed the away-end songs during his post-game conference:

It was a great experience, especially because our goal was achieved—you could see they were thrilled.

"We strive to make them happy every day, and tonight was a great feeling, especially since they could see Chelsea's back." This is a significant issue.

"I'm quite pleased with the five points we earned. We struggled for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, and I'm not happy about it. We prepared the game to press them man to man, but for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, we weren't doing so, which is why we struggled.

"We changed that after fifteen to twenty minutes, and the game improved significantly. We could definitely score more, but five goals is sufficient.

Martin: A moment of insanity for Stephens Red
Russell Martin, the head coach of Southampton, discussing Stephens' red card during his post-game conference:

Nobody will likely be as disappointed as Jack, in my opinion. I don't even need to sit down and discuss that with him. It's regrettable that it's transformed the game for us and that he will suffer more than anyone else.

"I believe they must characterise it as aggressive behaviour; in reality, it isn't violent, but there isn't any other way to explain that. Jack and I have suffered greatly as a result of this period of insanity."

Regarding the jeers at full time: "I can understand them when they see a large scoreline and a few of the goals we give up.

Football is an expressive sport that evokes strong emotions in people, which is why it is so popular and unique in this nation. I get it, but I'm incredibly pleased of the players because some of the 11-on-11 football we played was incredible.

"With ten men, we delved deeply for an hour, and some impressive performances took place. those's difficult in those situation, therefore I'm thankful and proud of them for that."