Player ratings as Blues see off 10-man Saints

Chelsea’s excellent run continued on Wednesday night as they thumped ten-man Southampton 5-1 at St. Mary’s

Enzo Maresca was happy to rotate on the south coast with seven Blues players dropping out of the XI from Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Aston Villa. One of the usual midweek participants, Axel Disasi, handed the visitors an early lead as he headed home Enzo Fernandez’s inswinging corner at the near post.

Southampton were without their brightest stars for Chelsea’s visit, but they were positive early on and failed to be deterred by the Blues’ early goal. Joe Aribo benefitted from an excellent Kyle Walker-Peters sequence to quickly restore parity, but that was as good as it got for Russell Martin’s side.

The Saints were hamstrung by Jack Stephens’ stupid red card for a hair pull on Marc Cucurella, but they were already 3-1 down by that point. Once again, Southampton were their own worst enemies as build-up errors littered their first-half. Chelsea capitalised on one to retake the lead through Christopher Nkunku before Noni Madueke rounded off a flowing Blues move for their third.

Southampton offered attacking endeavour despite their man disadvantage but, in truth, Chelsea should’ve scored ten by the time they added a fourth through Cole Palmer. While Lumley struggled with the ball at his feet, he was generally superb from a shot-stopping perspective to frustrate the Blues, but their was little he could do to prevent the visitors from adding a fifth in the closing stages.

Jadon Sancho scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea to round off an excellent night for Maresca’s side, with the Blues now just seven points adrift of league leaders Liverpool after their draw at Newcastle.

*Ratings provided by FotMob*

Subs not used: Alex McCarthy (GK), Maxwell Cornet, Samuel Amo-Ameyaw, Joe O’Brien-Whitmarsh

*Ratings provided by FotMob*