Saints v Chelsea Match Thread

The shame is that Chelsea went forwards over the summer and we have gone backwards due to complacency

What utter rot. Chelsea are a good side as we are.They were better on the day.Get some perspective.

2 wins from the last 7 now

 

Was always going to be a rollercoaster under Puel

 

Annoying seeing Spurs, Liverpool and Everton doing so well as we errrrr meh

0.1637443/10

a sluggish display, VVD even seemed disinterested. Tadic not in the game and Davis poor by his standards.

We looked comfortable enough until Chelsea scored through a decent bit of skill by Hazard.

I felt there was a lack of belief, before the game I was very confident of a draw minimum but was not expecting such a lethargic and unimaginative display.

Hopefully we will be more energetic on Thursday.

Hard to put MOM but Romeau closest to having a good performance.

You do realise this is real life and not a video game? Forster was not to blame for their goals..

Agree but he didn't instill much confidence by fumbling / spilling all the other shots. It was an uncharacteristic performance.

Tom Heaton is certainly above him in the England pecking order judging by recent weeks' performances.

So annoying coming on this site. I come on here because there is occasionally some useful insight, discussion and news. But, far too many melts. We suffer our first defeat in 9/10 games to the best team in the division right now, and suddenly 3 or 4 of the players that have been integral to that unbeaten run are now suddenly not good enough. Behave yourselves.

This.

I think by far, it has been pretty reasonable here

Go back and read the comments about Martina. My favourite is he's another "Ali Dia".

I am quite happy if Saints finish 17th, anything else is a bonus. In simple terms Chelsea are not close rivals, we need to watch out for the likes of Palace and Watford.

0.000001638/10

I'm with you on this Munster. Why was Martina such a joke of a defender today?

There seems to be a segment who have a preconceived opinion that he's crap, and justify their view by focussing on any mistakes he may make, ignoring all the good stuff. He put in a fantastic cross which Austin headed just over, and defended ok against a great team who are on a roll. He's played a major part of our excellent run of clean sheets and good performances against strong teams. Today we were beaten by a better team, so all that is ignored, and as a result he's the scapegoat who is a joke apparently.

Today showed what hundreds of millions of pounds gets you... Chelsea pay their players infinitely more than we could ever dream of and yet I still thought we were OK.

That goal after 5 minutes was a real blow and we had a go at them after that in the first half really well without threatening their goal.

Nice to see a few of our players sticking a shoulder in..in past years Chelsea have bullied us terribly.

Two quality players scored two good goals and we , like a number of teams recently, could not find a way past a resolute 3 ATB (in the first half it was more like 5 as the wing backs did more defending than attacking).

Chelsea often seem to be at their best when they meet us at our place...

Never mind at least we can now look forward to a European tie whilst they get to watch all the other London clubs play in the champions league!

There seems to be a segment who have a preconceived opinion that he's crap, and justify their view by focussing on any mistakes he may make, ignoring all the good stuff. He put in a fantastic cross which Auston headed just over, and defended ok against a great team who are on a roll. He's played a major part of our excellent run of clean sheets and good performances against strong teams. Today we were beaten by a better team, so all that is ignored, and as a result he's the scapegoat who is a joke apparently.

We gave them too much space and time on the ball and when we gained possession in midfield we were woefully slow in attack. With Chelsea having such an easy, poorly defended goal so early on, they were content to sit back and let us try to break them down, and then hit us on the break. It was criminal how we didn't have a player marking Hazard's every move; you just can't allow a player like him the space and time to control the game or get a shot away.

 

Our best chance of getting anything from the game was via set pieces and Chelsea were proven to be vulnerable defensively because we had two or three free headers in the box, but couldn't direct them on target. Austin also proved that their defence was vulnerable because he had the ball in the net from only being very marginally offside. If we had somebody like Long available, we could have broke up-field with some pace and put them on the back foot, but instead we were pedestrian. Also some of our passing and touches were woeful and we gave away possession time after time.

 

That Chelsea managed to fool the referee so often by falling to the ground at every soft touch didn't help the flow of our game. They have an Italian manager and the sort of players who are masters at that gamesmanship, but ultimately we weren't at the races today and Chelsea had too much quality in their team. We'll just have to beat them up there, like we did last time.

There seems to be a segment who have a preconceived opinion that he's crap, and justify their view by focussing on any mistakes he may make, ignoring all the good stuff. He put in a fantastic cross which Auston headed just over, and defended ok against a great team who are on a roll. He's played a major part of our excellent run of clean sheets and good performances against strong teams. Today we were beaten by a better team, so all that is ignored, and as a result he's the scapegoat who is a joke apparently.

it was his backwards defending when trying to close down Costa. it was funny and something you rarely see premier league footballers try.

at least he didn't do a foul throw today

Martina is a decent player. but really, his limitations were shown today

it was his backwards defending when trying to close down Costa. it was funny and something you rarely see premier league footballers try.

at least he didn't do a foul throw today

 

Martina is a decent player. but really, his limitations were shown today

As I said, he could've been tighter on Costa. But I wouldn't call it a howler, because he didn't gift the goal, it was a world class strike.

Davis' deadball kicks were awful, he really did have an offday

2nd time this season we have conceded the first goal in a game due to Davis ball watching and not going with runners, and then making half hearted attempts to recover by dangling a leg. Not good enough for a player of his experience

2nd time this season we have conceded the first goal in a game due to Davis ball watching and not going with runners, and then making half hearted attempts to recover by dangling a leg. Not good enough for a player of his experience

Could have made a difference today if Ward-Prowse played instead. We would have have Ward-Prowse taking the set pieces too..

it was his backwards defending when trying to close down Costa. it was funny and something you rarely see premier league footballers try.

at least he didn't do a foul throw today

 

Martina is a decent player. but really, his limitations were shown today

Yeah, you can imagine neutrals everywhere rolling around in their living rooms in fits of laughter at his rarely seen comedy defending!!! As others have said he could have been a bit tighter but to say "you rarely see premier league footballers try" what he did is plainly ******. Brilliant shot, not joke defending.

Martina is a joke of a defender

Haha hahahah ... Sorry, I was laughing out of politeness, but truthfully I'm struggling to see the funny side, he looks like he should be good, but just he is really bad.

Welp, you can't win them all.

Chelsea just weren't going to allow anyone near their goal today. I thought Romeu was immense - really getting stuck in and he was everywhere. But we just didn't have enough to break them up enough to get more chances on goal.

Martina just looked lacking in a bit of confidence, several times he was looking to pass and just didn't look comfortable taking the ball on if there was no one to pass to.

thought we just looked like a tired team today, lacked zip and energy, wayward passing, poor concentration and quite a few players bottling tackles. Completely fell asleep for their first, gave hazard loads of space and then our usual speciality of allowing them to shoot from 20 yds rather than closing down. We were also far too slow when breaking for an attack.

most players generally ok but thought clasie looked poor, cuco comically bad and tadic tried too many tricks.

Chelsea were excellent, outplayed us in virtually every aspect of the game.

Think we'll be in the market for a few defenders in the summer.

Soundly beaten by a better team today, it happens but Saints put in a good performance. Puel had to rotate the squad but they still looked tired. I thought Bertrand look leggy and was struggling a bit. Conte put 3 on Tadic and allowed Bertrand the freedom of the left side, he had done his homework. Classie clearly isn't the most effective player but JWP and Holberg cannot play every game. Personally I would have put Reed on as he would have helped Romeo (how good was he today) a lot more.

We all know that we need an attacker and a right back but we have what we have and Chelsea will value those three points.

This was always going to be a horrible part of the fixture list, Everton and Liverpool will probably help themselves to a few points but after that Saints can take stock and start moving forward again.

Chelsea came with a game plan and executed it perfectly, get the early goal and then play nine behind the ball, absorb Saints attacks and hit us on the break for the second. We were second best today and never looked like breaking them down. Hands up, we were well beaten.

I thought we looked jaded today as well, even during the warm up there was no zip and sharpness that usually tells you that we're up for it. We seemed not to be today.

Puel was not really being honest with himself in the video interview, guess he hates losing but needs to be realistic, Chelsea have much better players than us with far more control and authority in possession. A wake up call to the whole Club really, we are good but not THAT good.

Poor mistake by Davis for first goal, but even more concerning was our approach when we had the ball: propaganda football. Nobody willing to take a risk and try something different. So slow as well - every time we won the ball in their half we failed to move it quickly, instead letting them get their shape back. Usually I think that Clasie's greatest attribute over our other midfielders is that he moves the ball forward quicker, but he was very poor today too. Bad day at the office, hoping for better on Thursday. When is Long back?

Beaten by a much better team, who have hit a bit of form recently, coupled with a poor performance by us. A day to forget really.

Sometimes you come up against a better team and you lose. That was today.

We haven't suddenly become rubbish with terrible players, we were outplayed by a better team, whose manager got it tactically spot on. The early goal was our undoing really, they didn't need to force the game after that.

They were like last years Leicester only more capable! Yes we had possession, but it was mainly tippy tappy going nowhere dangerous peripheral stuff. We really did not look like breaking down their very able defensive lines.

Inter will not be as stern a test as Chelsea, I just hope we put out a strong line up and go for it.

Roll on Thursday!

Can't help but feel somewhat disappointed with Clasie again. Really waiting and hoping for this lad to start playing well...

Can't help but feel somewhat disappointed with Clasie again. Really waiting and hoping for this lad to start playing well...

Sometimes life is too short.

Just seen the goals on sky news and the second is as bad defending as I thought live . Great strike from Costa , but it was comical defending by Martina. Deserves a rollicking for that , is it some new technique the chuck berry backward duck walk tackle . Under 12's will get clog for defending like that , let alone professionals .

He was nervous like a rabbit caught in the headlights the whole game . Look at their full back . Tadic turned him inside & out , early on . One run the bloke was like a lush at closing time staggering around . But , he got tighter & tighter to Tadic, got a bit physical , got help from his mates and snuffed the threat out . That's what I'd have expected from Martina, pulling people over to help him , rattling a few bones . He's a big lad, it's one thing getting turned over by world class players , but if you do they should know about it . VvD left a bit on Costa , Martina just wanted to Morris dance with him . I know it's Halloween and Hazzard is world class but he was ****ting himself every time he got the ball

Got beaten by the better side today, there is no shame in that. Year on year they come to sms and they are the best team i see that season, this year was no different and normal service has resumed.

But I still don't understand why PEH isn't starting ahead of claise, at least against physical sides like today.

And whilst Martina can defend he offers nothing going forwards. Passes behind the attackers, slows play, goes backwards and time and time again he should be running on behind the winger and stops... With bertran he looks to run behind every single time - and often gets behind the team and gets a cross in as a result. Martina, sadly, just isn't good enough.

Game was also crying out for long to start today, they were shaky at the back from the start and he would have terrorised them, just like mane and just like jayrod in seasons past. Redmond again wasn't strong enough and after they got the goal they closed out redmond and tadic too easily. Needed that constant physical threat that long causes.

But oh well. Onwards to Inter! What a game to savour!!

Well beaten by a very good side. Wouldn't be shocked to see them win the league.

 

As for the fat troll from Austria. Just disappear back to your mars bar multi packs and your kids in a cellar as you know fu_ck all about football and as CB Fry points out, you're wrong every single time you obese cu_nt.

 

Seems fair.

bit strong that

Got beaten by the better side today, there is no shame in that. Year on year they come to sms and they are the best team i see that season, this year was no different and normal service has resumed.

Ah I don't know. We've beaten them and got points against them in the past, but yeah. That's their third win out of five at our place and they certainly seem to turn up.

But yeah, no arguments today. Best team won. Shrug our shoulders and move on. If you offered us a point from City away and Chelsea at home we'd have probably taken it. Sounds pessimistic I know but we wouldn't have expected to beat either of them or go unbeaten.

It's all been said. My motm - Romeu by a mile.

Back from the game and had a really great day out. Arrived at 10:30am and left at 19:00. Got my sons shirt signed by every player and really enjoyed my Pukka pies as well as 2 pints of Doombar.

So we lost to the better team. Chelsea scored early and we tried hard, but couldn't get through their blockade. They had 2 chance first half and scored. Eden Hazard was exceptional today, his movement caused us so much trouble.

The second seemed to end the game, but we kept going and made some good chances that we just couldn't convert.

We didn't achieve our very high standards and yes the players looked tired. We lost to an excellent Chelsea team. I won't lose any sleep over our performance and already looking forward to Thursday.

We March On.

Beaten by a better side today. Don't think we played awfully but Chelsea defended really well and looked dangerous on the attack.

Everyone always looks at their own team's performance, but sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. Well done Chelsea, we move on to Inter on Thursday - COYR

Couple of things I noticed today.

Whilst the warm up was the same it wasn't at the usual intensity or discipline. I think it was taken by a different coach.

Alot of the players before the game looked tired.

Chelsea are the real deal and their supporters were fantastic. Our support wasn't as vocal.

The referee once again seemed to side with the bigger club and didn't give yellow cards to Chelsea when clearly they were warranted.

Chelsea looked like the best team in the league today . Losing was not a disgrace .

What was concerning was how easy we were nullified. They were set up to contain us and did it with ease . I doubt a full strength Saints would have been able to have changed that .

Other teams will see how to copy Chelsea and nullify our formation . Puel will need to change things to suit .

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Lawro got it right then.

In my opinion Charlie Austin's goal was wrongly disallowed. That's level.

thought we just looked like a tired team today, lacked zip and energy, wayward passing, poor concentration and quite a few players bottling tackles. Completely fell asleep for their first, gave hazard loads of space and then our usual speciality of allowing them to shoot from 20 yds rather than closing down. We were also far too slow when breaking for an attack.

 

most players generally ok but thought clasie looked poor, cuco comically bad and tadic tried too many tricks.

 

Chelsea were excellent, outplayed us in virtually every aspect of the game.

 

Think we'll be in the market for a few defenders in the summer.

Really? Some thought his jokes were good.

Cuco the Clown

Poor mistake by Davis for first goal, but even more concerning was our approach when we had the ball: propaganda football. Nobody willing to take a risk and try something different. So slow as well - every time we won the ball in their half we failed to move it quickly, instead letting them get their shape back. Usually I think that Clasie's greatest attribute over our other midfielders is that he moves the ball forward quicker, but he was very poor today too. Bad day at the office, hoping for better on Thursday. When is Long back?

True. Probably because they were scared shitless about losing the ball and having Hazard and co. storming back at them.

Chelsea looked like the best team in the league today . Losing was not a disgrace .

 

What was concerning was how easy we were nullified. They were set up to contain us and did it with ease . I doubt a full strength Saints would have been able to have changed that .

 

Other teams will see how to copy Chelsea and nullify our formation . Puel will need to change things to suit .

 

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No one's gonna go through the upheaval of switching to three at the back just for us, unless it's something they already deploy.

Saints looking tired to me - which kind of adds up with the muscle injuries we are experiencing too.

Frustrating game and we can have no complaints with the result, Clasie and Davis were weak points for us and the ease with which Chelsea found space in midfield areas going forward leads me to dread the Liverpool fixture in a couple of weeks time.

Forster strangely looked a bit short of confidence and Bertrand nor match fit yet, hope he gets left out of the England squad to get a bit more rest.

I watched Sampdoria v Inter Milan last night, De Boer under a lot of pressure following another defeat so hope we push on and capitalise on that Thursday night.

No disgrace losing to Chelsea, they have looked good in recent weeks and agree with Nick we looked a bit jaded.Worryingly that only one goal in three games, and that was a gimmy.Two very winnable games next and looking forward to them.

Chelsea were very good as were their fans. If ever a side needed their own fans to step up and really get behind the team then yesterday was a good example but, once again, it never happened. It's a walk in the park for visiting sides at St Mary's. You don't have to sing, just make some noise, we attack the Chapel in near silence, bizarre at a football match.

Romeu was really the only player to come out of that with good marks, beaten by the better side but we're better than yesterday's performance. Bounce back against the Italians.

Feel a bit sorry for Martina, we paid a million for him as cover and he is expected to handle the likes of Hazard and Costa. Milan won't be the pushovers everyone are predicting.

We were beaten by a better side but Davis was asleep for the first goal and why did we give Costa so much space for the second? Our only chance looked to be from our set pieces and they were poor yesterday.

Poor mistake by Davis for first goal, but even more concerning was our approach when we had the ball: propaganda football. Nobody willing to take a risk and try something different. So slow as well - every time we won the ball in their half we failed to move it quickly, instead letting them get their shape back. Usually I think that Clasie's greatest attribute over our other midfielders is that he moves the ball forward quicker, but he was very poor today too. Bad day at the office, hoping for better on Thursday. When is Long back?

I think we did try to take risks and try stuff but the quality of the balls in the last third were well below par over hit, under hit just the plain wrong ball just poor quality all round. Against Chelsea's defence we needed to be spot on it instead the players chose this game to put in one of their worst performances since Man U away.

We were beaten by a better side but Davis was asleep for the first goal and why did we give Costa so much space for the second? Our only chance looked to be from our set pieces and they were poor yesterday.

Costa was given the freedom of Southampton for his goal. A well struck shot but he should never have had that much time and space to pick his spot.

Feel a bit sorry for Martina, we paid a million for him as cover and he is expected to handle the likes of Hazard and Costa. Milan won't be the pushovers everyone are predicting.

It doesn't help that he seemed to be left 2 on 1 so often.

If you sell your best players and let your managers leave you are going to lose the majority of games to the top 4/5 teams. We are playing well and Puel has set us up to win more than we lose. We can't challenge the Chelsea's of this world with our strategy though.

There are no Chelsea's of this world. There is only one. Pet hate this phrase

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