Southampton 4-2

Telegraph:

Chelsea 4 Southampton 2: Diego Costa finds form as league leaders take giant stride towards title

Sam Wallace

If these are the last days of Diego Costa at Chelsea then this is how they would prefer to remember him at Stamford Bridge, a thorn in the side of the visiting defence and plundering the kind of goals that might take them to the second Premier League title in three seasons.

There were two goals for Costa in the second half of this game, part of the long, grinding march to what they hope will be a title in Antonio Conte’s first season, and a night so anxious that on one occasion the hyperactive Italian launched a kick in frustration at a nearby medical bag. The bag survived intact and so too did Chelsea’s grip on the title for which they need a maximum of four wins from their last five games to secure.

That assumes that Tottenham Hotspur’s challenge will not wilt, starting with their trip to Crystal Palace on Wednesday and in the meantime, Chelsea have Costa back in goalscoring form for the first time in eight games. There was a cupping of the ear in the direction of the home crowd when the striker scored his second which may have hinted at some general disaffection of his but then it is always hard to tell with Costa.

The Spain international is high maintenance but Conte’s decision to leave him out of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final was eventually justified with a performance that also encompassed an assist for the first goal for Eden Hazard. It was a reminder too that on his day, this force of nature will take some stopping although how many more of those days he is prepared to devote to Chelsea remains to be seen.

Conte said afterwards that his faith in Costa is unwavering, although there is the definite sense that he is coaxing the best out of his striker until the end of the season when the difficult decisions will have to be made. “For sure, everyone feels a bit of pressure,” Conte said, “the players, the club, but also the fans, no? They want to try to win after this season that I think has been incredible for us. Above all, after our bad season last time.”

The winning triumvirate for Chelsea encompassed Costa, Hazard and Cesc Fabregas, the latter preferred to Pedro and Willian in the attacking line-up and the architect of the best of his team’s attacking play before he was substituted with 14 minutes to play. Fabregas and Hazard played as a pair just behind Costa and they had fashioned the first goal for Hazard before Southampton had really got to grips with the challenge.

There was enough security before Costa added the fourth for Conte to send on John Terry with four minutes left, which delighted the home crowd and must have offered a crumb of comfort to the man himself. He had not played a minute in the league since Nov 5 and he will be pleased that the second goal conceded by Chelsea, in the third minute of time added on, a towering Ryan Bertrand header, was nothing to do with him.

A strange end to the game to see Gary Cahill out-jumped by the second former Chelsea man on the night to score against his old club after Oriol Romeu equalised in the first half. Claude Puel conceded afterwards that the Chelsea goals had come at critical times: in the first five minutes and then the second in injury-time at the end of the first half when Cahill restored the lead.

Having lost two of their four previous league games what the leaders needed was a mid-table opponent with the summer holidays on their mind although what they got was a mid-table opponent who had spied an opportunity to make life difficult. For much of the first half after they had conceded a first goal, Puel’s team were excellent but they faded badly in the second half and this was their fifth defeat in their last 10 Premier League games.

They conceded within the first five minutes, and before they had really woken up judging by the time Costa was allowed by Maya Yoshida to delay his cut-back in the area to Hazard. The Chelsea striker, chasing Cesc Fabregas’ ball, was permitted to wait unchallenged for Hazard to dash into position before delivering the pass that the Belgian pinged into the far corner of Fraser Forster’s goal.

Once the away team did find their stride, Steven Davis and Romeu were exceptional in midfield, and Sofiane Boufal, like Hazard before him an import from Lille in Ligue 1, showed glimpses of a considerable talent. Unfortunately for Southampton the Moroccan faded badly after half-time and was substituted before the end but for a period of the first half he epitomised his team’s confidence on the ball.

For the 10 minutes following Chelsea’s opener Southampton had 61 per cent of the possession and the equaliser came from a corner that broke loose to Romeu after Manolo Gabbiadini’s shot was saved. They were on an equal footing until the one minute of time added on when Costa launched himself at an overhead kick and Cahill headed the ball off his toe and past Forster.
It was Chelsea who started the second half better and Hazard and Fabregas who conjured the third, a cross from the latter that Costa headed in over the top of Bertrand on 54 minutes to ensure the game was all but over. His fourth was the best of the lot, coming after a double exchange with Hazard and then Pedro before Costa stroked in his 51st Premier League goal for the club.

On came Terry to bolster a Chelsea defence that, for all the success in the other direction seems incapable of keeping a clean sheet, and it turned out that Bertrand had the last word with a headed goal. Yet this was Chelsea’s night and they need only four more victories to render themselves uncatchable once and for all.

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Mail:

Chelsea 4-2 Southampton: Diego Costa's double settles title nerves and sends Antonio Conte's side seven points clear at the top of the Premier League

By Martin Samuel

It has been rather a good four days for Chelsea. The seven-point lead at the top has been restored, maybe a little damage done to a few Tottenham egos on Saturday — and Diego Costa has started scoring again.
This was his best performance in a Chelsea shirt for some time. He scored the third and fourth goals, made the first — and came pretty close to removing Gary Cahill’s head from its shoulders in an attempt to get the second, too.

A late header by Ryan Bertrand gave the scoreline the appearance of a right old ding-dong, but the reality is Chelsea were comfortable once Costa had given them a two-goal cushion after 53 minutes. 

Southampton are a decent team and did not let Tottenham, or the integrity of the League, down — but that’s eight goals in two games for Chelsea, an ominous return after the cold water splash of defeat at Old Trafford.

Costa rediscovering the form of early in the season is the most vital development of all. March 6 was the date of his last Chelsea goal and his performance levels were starting to become a bit of a worry, particularly with Michy Batshuayi out of the team for a reason.
Could Chelsea close out this title race without their striker at his best? Could Batshuayi take his place having been so underwhelming until now? By the end of Tuesday night's game, for now at least, people had stopped asking.

Costa was a handful, which he needed to be, because Southampton can be, too. Even with little on the game, they made Chelsea anxious and it needed a third goal before the locals appeared entirely comfortable with the prospect of victory.
It was a good goal, too, featuring the same three players who had combined to conjure Chelsea’s first, although in different order, as if rotated.

The first goal had been Fabregas-Costa-Hazard, this was Hazard-Fabregas-Costa. Eden Hazard got the ball on the right and darted inside with some lovely skill, he laid off to Cesc Fabregas, who crossed for Costa to rise above Southampton’s defence and steer a header past Fraser Forster.
The Southampton goalkeeper had a touch of the Claudio Bravos, sadly. He wasn’t at fault for the goals, but nor did he save them. By the time he made his first stop, from a Marcos Alonso shot, Southampton had already conceded three.

The fourth — what would have been the cherry on top had Bertrand not scored in added time — was vintage Chelsea, and vintage Costa, too.

He held the ball up, ran into the Southampton area, chasers unable to get near him, laid the ball to Hazard, got it back, played another one-two with Pedro and then finished smartly.
If he is on his game like this for the remainder of the campaign, it will be hard to stop Chelsea. And that is if Tottenham hold their end up and win a difficult set of remaining fixtures, starting on Wednesday night at Selhurst Park.

With Chelsea seven points clear once more, Tottenham have to win and this is a tricky game even if Crystal Palace no longer seem threatened by relegation.
The reason for that is they are a team in form — the one that sparked this late flourishing of a title race by winning at Chelsea, in fact.

Last season, chasing down Leicester, it was Tottenham who blinked first and, if they do so again, it will remove a lot of the tension around Stamford Bridge.

It was certainly edgy for a time — old boy Oriol Romeu reminding us that when a title is on the line, obstacles pop up from the unlikeliest locations. Romeu’s 24th-minute equaliser momentarily silenced this crowd, but is it any wonder? Not only were the stakes high, but the identity of the scorer was, frankly, astonishing.

The goal meant that Romeu has now scored as many at Stamford Bridge for Southampton as he did for Chelsea during several seasons here. It’s now 1-1 — Tuesday night's goal equalising the one he got for Chelsea in a 6-0 win over Wolves on September 25, 2012.
Not that Romeu has ever been prolific. This was his first for Southampton since January 9, 2016 against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup; his first in the league since December 5, 2015 against Aston Villa; and his first away from home since playing for Barcelona B on December 8, 2010 at Real Betis in the Spanish second division.

Nobody can say Southampton did not deserve their spells of parity, however. Despite going behind early, they had already caused jitters in the home penalty area by the time Hazard scored after five minutes.
Manolo Gabbiadini almost capitalised on hesitation in the Chelsea defence after three minutes and Jack Stephens almost got in at the far post soon after.   

So it came as something of a relief, even with so little time gone, when Hazard put Chelsea in front. Fabregas played a raking pass to Costa on the right, he cut the ball back to Hazard, who finished across the face of Forster — a finish reminiscent of Lionel Messi’s precision.
The only question that remained was, having seen Ander Herrera do such a fine man-marking job on Hazard at Old Trafford, why Southampton did not get closer. He ran virtually the width of the pitch to score.

Yet Southampton remained a threat. Chelsea have not been themselves at the back lately, and have not kept a clean sheet in the league since January 22 against Hull. Antonio Conte will have been far from happy with the uncertainty that ended in Southampton’s goal. James Ward-Prowse was the provider, Cesar Azpilicueta unable to clear the ball, which fell to Gabbiadini at the far post. Thibaut Courtois tried unsuccessfully to smother it, but the ball found a way through to Romeu, who was now standing in the six-yard box in front of an empty net. Even a player with his limited scoring prowess could not miss from there.

Chelsea were rattled and it took them a while to get going again. Had they gone in level at half-time, who knows what effect it might have had on their psyche — but in injury time, Gary Cahill settled any troubled minds.

N’Golo Kante swept the ball into a crowded penalty area from the left and Alonso won it in the air, as he so often does. Costa wound up for an acrobatic overhead kick but, before he could make contact, in swooped Chelsea’s captain with his own header to defeat Forster.
By the end, even John Terry was on — a cameo and his first league appearance since a similarly late arrival against Everton on November 5. One might speculate sentiment on Conte’s part, but it is so not the right stage in the season for that.
As Costa demonstrated, it is down to business now.

Chelsea (3-4-2-1): Courtois 6.5; Azpilicueta 7, Luiz 7, Cahill 7.5; Moses 6.5 (Terry 85), Matic 7, Kante 7.5, Fabregas 7.5 (Pedro 76), Alonso 6.5; Hazard 7.5 (Willian 89), Costa 8.
Unused subs: Begovic, Ake, Batshuayi, Chalobah.
Bookings: Kante, Fabregas
Goals: Hazard 5, Cahill 45+1, Costa 53, 89
Manager: Antonio Conte 7

Southampton (4-3-3): Forster 5.5; Soares 6, Yoshida 6.5, Stephens 6.5, Bertrand 6.5; Davis 6.5, Romeu 7, Ward-Prowse 7 (Long 81); Tadic 6, Gabbiadini 7 (Rodriguez 85), Boufal 6 (Redmond 68, 6).
Unused subs: Clasie, Caceres, Redmond, Hojbjerg, Hassen.
Bookings: Romeu, Tadic
Goals: Romeu 24, Bertrand 90+4
Manager: Claude Puel 7

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire) 6.5
MOM: Costa
Ratings by SAMI MOKBEL

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Independent:

Chelsea back on track at the top as Diego Costa inspires win over Southampton

Chelsea 4 Southampton 2: Antonio Conte's side put the onus on their closest challengers, Tottenham Hotspur, by restoring a seven-point lead at the top of the table
Miguel Delaney Stamford Bridge

Chelsea ease that bit closer to the title, but only after more of a fight than might have been expected against Southampton. They did eventually raise it when they needed, in that efficient way they have so regularly managed since the turn of the year, as the manager’s decision to rest his attacking stars for this 4-2 victory more than paid off.

Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa were all restored to the side after being rested for Saturday’s FA Cup win over title rivals Tottenham Hotspur and, having come on to help win that game, all combined here to decisively win this one. Costa more than stood out, as he offered his most complete display for months by setting up Hazard’s opening strike and then scoring his own first in eight games before adding another right at the death. It was no more than the Spanish forward deserved, as he had rediscovered his rhythm, but not quite what Southampton deserved.

They had really made Chelsea work for an hour, as illustrated by the manner of the true clinching goal. Defender Gary Cahill was willing to put his head where others were putting their feet, to force Chelsea over the line.

Nevertheless, after scoring four fine goals to secure this supreme win, they now only need four wins to secure the title.

It initially seemed like it was going to be one of the dullest games possible, as Chelsea got themselves into what had seemed the best position possible for this point of a title run-in: 1-0 thanks to an early goal, against a mid-table team with nothing to play for.

The way Conte’s side scored that fifth-minute strike only emphasised that, despite its high technical quality. Sure, Diego Costa had done very well with his delayed ball and Hazard even better with his excellent drilled finish into the corner, but they were both given plenty of space and time.

It seemed only a matter of time until Chelsea added to that, to make it a proper procession, but it was to be anything but. Southampton made the first half a real fight, as they soon realised Thibaut Courtois’s fragile defence was there to be got at.

There had already been warning in the manner that Jack Stephens got in on goal even before Hazard’s strike, but Chelsea were still caught almost completely unaware and lax for Oriol Romeu’s 24th-minute equaliser.

As was all too typical for a defence that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in 11 Premier League games now, it was actually one of the leaders’ own defenders that teed it up, Cesar Azpilicueta heading a James Ward-Prowse corner on to Manolo Gabbiadini. The forward showed fine composure to control the ball in such a tight space, before his shot from a tight angle cannoned off Courtois to Romeu to score from close range.

Southampton went closer to the next goal than Chelsea, until the champions elect at last sparked into life. It was, not unpredictably, an N’Golo Kante burst that jolted them back into the life and set the pace for a flurry of attacking. Costa appealed for a penalty, Nemanja Matic went narrowly wide when attempting another screamer and Hazard cut back into the box when he probably should have just shot.

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Guardian:

Chelsea tighten title grip after Diego Costa scores twice against Southampton
Chelsea 4 - 2 Southampton

Dominic Fifield

Normal service has been resumed. Chelsea emphatically checked the recent hint of a stagger and rediscovered the relentless, ruthless form which will surely earn them the Premier League title. Southampton may have been slippery opponents but they were overcome to re-establish a seven-point advantage at the top and steel the leaders for the run-in. The pressure has been thrust back on their closest pursuer. Over to you, Tottenham Hotspur.

Antonio Conte had worn a scowl for much of this match, pounding his technical area as furiously as ever and kicking everything from water bottles to medical bags whenever his players’ concentration lapsed. “I wanted to kick the ball because sometimes, believe me, I want to play,” said the Chelsea manager in the aftermath as the adrenaline gave way to exhaustion. “But I know that if I kick the ball, the referee will probably send me off.”

And yet, by the end, he was pointing to the heavens in delight as Diego Costa, a beast awakened, scored twice after the interval to nullify the visitors’ threat and banish memories of that recent 2-0 defeat at Manchester United.

The Italian acknowledged just how significant this victory could prove to be, potentially sapping hope from Tottenham’s before their tricky trip to Crystal Palace on Wednesday night. “It feels like a massive step,” said Gary Cahill, whose thumping header had restored the home side’s lead in first-half stoppage time. Costa may have caught the eye with his first league goals since early March, but it was the captain’s timely effort which set the tone. His was the kind of goal John Terry might once have supplied.

Plenty of Chelsea’s key performers had risen to this occasion before the end. Cesc Fàbregas was outstanding, striking delicious passes from deep when he was not trading challenges with Oriol Romeu. The cross he arced over from Eden Hazard’s short corner nine minutes into the second period proved to be his 103rd Premier League assist, with Costa holding off Ryan Bertrand to plant a header into the net. Hazard was a livewire, maintaining the high standards he has set all season.
Southampton had been guilty of losing him early on as he ambled on to Costa’s lay-off, eluding Romeu in the process, to fire an accurate finish across Fraser Forster and into the corner.

Then there was Costa, such a frustrated presence over recent weeks, rediscovering his touch after five scoreless performances in the league. His second goal seemed like a release, the passes snapped swiftly between the forward and Hazard, then Pedro, before he wrong-footed Fraser Forster and slid in the fourth. Conte has always pointed to the forward’s selfless contribution, running the channels and unsettling defenders, but he needed proper reward for those efforts. Should he depart for China in the summer he would be going into his last month with Chelsea bolstered. A title would be a fitting way to go out.

Chelsea needed this after Old Trafford. There had still been periods when Southampton’s players, fresh from a weekend off, had threatened to wrest the initiative but just as at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham, the more clinical team would prevail. The visitors were at their most troublesome when Soufiane Bufal and Dusan Tadic were scuttling down the wings, fed by the busy energy and canny deliveries of Steven Davis and James Ward-Prowse.

The England midfielder had delivered the corner from which Chelsea conceded, for the 11th Premier League game in succession, before the half-hour mark. Nemanja Matic’s inadvertent flick had set the home defenders on their heels, with Manolo Gabbiadini allowed time to collect and turn inside before poking the loose ball back across goal. Thibaut Courtois’ touch presented it to Romeu and the former Chelsea player simply could not miss.

There was a period thereafter when Chelsea threatened to wilt, but a barnstorming run down the right from N’Golo Kante seemed to shake them awake once again, with Cahill’s telling contribution delivered shortly afterwards. The centre-half had spent two nights in hospital last week recovering from a severe bout of gastroenteritis, and missed Saturday’s semi-final. “The lads didn’t miss me at Wembley,” he said. They needed him here, easing away from Cédric Soares as Southampton’s back-line laboured to repel crosses from either flank in quick succession. Marcos Alonso looped a header back towards the six-yard box where Cahill powered his attempt down and in. He had actually risked an immediate return to casualty by taking the header clean off Costa’s boot as the striker attempted an overhead kick.

Chelsea did not look back and even offered Terry his first taste of Premier League football since November in what time remained, with Bertrand’s late goal for the visitors a mere consolation.
Conte’s side now need four victories from their remaining fixtures to become champions, although that is supposing Tottenham maintain winning form during their trickier run-in. Spurs have no leeway and the leaders will watch events at Selhurst Park on Wednesday with interest, but they can sense the title edging ever closer. “We must be confident about the future,” added Conte. “We only have to think about ourselves.”

It looked like it could be one of those nights, but then it also looked like one break might do it. They got it when a corner ended up at the feet of Kante. He curled it back, Alonso headed it across goal and Cahill showed immense bravery to get his head to the ball - especially as Costa was at that very second trying to bicycle kick it - and get Chelsea back in front.

Without having been that convincing, Conte’s side again economically lifted it when required.
Costa finally lifted it, too, although there was nothing economical about his display. He was at maximum from the very start of the game. Even beyond his assist, he was generally giving Southampton a lot of problems with his rage and aggression. You would have said it was an impressively complete performance up to that point, except there was still something missing, as he hadn’t hit the target - either in this game or the previous eight. That run at last came to an end.

On 53 minutes, Fabregas clipped the ball into the box, and Costa did brilliantly to get his body around Ryan Bertrand and still get a lot of power on the header. Fraser Forster again might have done better, not that Costa will have cared. He was looking much better after what was just his fifth goal of 2017 for Chelsea.

It showed he had his momentum back, as he eventually got his second of the game and 19th of the Premier League, finishing a flowing move involving intricate touches from Hazard and Pedro to fire past Fraser Forster. The scoring wasn’t quite finished as Bertrand scored an injury-time header. A Chelsea able to introduce John Terry for one of his last appearances at Stamford Bridge still had enough breathing space, just as they do in the title race.

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