Southampton had a bright start to the game and created several dangerous situations early on. Filip Jorgensen had to make an excellent stop just a few minutes into his first Premier League start – although the game was then called back for offside – but Chelsea were a little slow out of the starting blocks overall.

And even after we took the lead after a set piece, the home team hit back with a successful equalizer after ten minutes. Luckily, their goalkeeper, who certainly didn’t cover himself in glory all day, gave us the lead back less than five minutes later.

And from then on we never looked back. It would have been a massacre in the first half if the frame of the goal hadn’t saved the hosts several times, including a glorious chance from Cole Palmer. But Noni Madueke would hit the bottom corner on a cutback before half-time, meaning Nkunku and Felix also narrowly missed the target.

Southampton’s first-half misery was completed by the sending off of captain Jack Stephens for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair at an attacking corner (!). Unlike the exact same incident against Cristian Romero a few years ago, this time the VAR actually intervened and the perpetrator was rightly sent off.

The second half began as the first ended, with a huge miss from João Félix that would set the tone for the next 30 minutes or so. The cavalry of terrible misses – Noni himself could have had a hat-trick – and another goal from Tosin were finally ended by Palmer firing the ball into the empty net from point-blank range with just under a quarter of an hour to go.

Sancho then added another, his first ever for Chelsea, improving our goal difference, which could prove useful given the tight race for the top 4/6.

We scored five goals, we could have scored ten goals.

Carefree.

• Seven changes from the weekend; So not quite a full rotation, but a lot of changes in defense and also in attack
• Nkunku increased his team-leading goal total to 12 (all competitions); With 9, Palmer is now the league leader for us
• Enzo, Madueke, Félix, Nkunku and Gusto with the assists
• Maresca’s name is sung for the first(?) time
• Chelsea move up to second place and await the outcome of the ongoing match between Arsenal and Man Utd
• Next up: Spurs are away on Sunday
• KTBFFH

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