Southampton 1-1

Independent:

Southampton 1 Chelsea 1

Eden Hazard makes a point as Blues count blessings
 
Jack Pitt-Brooke  


Jose Mourinho’s mood may have marginally improved when he left his post-match press conference and learnt that Manchester City had drawn at home with Burnley.

That surprise result from the Etihad Stadium – the equaliser came just as Mourinho was discussing Chelsea’s non-penalty here – meant that the gap between City and Chelsea at the top of the Premier League stayed at three points, rather than contracting to just one, and that Chelsea’s failure to win at Southampton was less immediately costly than it might have been.

Chelsea, kicking off an hour before City, had just stumbled to a 1-1 draw with an impressively resilient Southampton side. Mourinho’s men had been poor in the first half and had gone behind, only for Eden Hazard, seemingly carrying the whole team on his shoulders, to drag them back with a brilliant equaliser just before the break.

For all of Chelsea’s attacking pressure in the second half, though, they could not find a winner. Their best opportunity came when Matt Targett tripped Cesc Fabregas in the box, only for referee Anthony Taylor to book Fabregas for simulation. This was the incident that sparked Mourinho’s post-match fury, not just with the “scandal” of the unawarded penalty, but with what he called a “campaign” against his team, denying them penalties that they had earned and ignoring the transgressions of their rivals.

It was quite a performance from Mourinho afterwards but understandably so. This was the type of marginal misfortune that decides tight games. And this was the type of tight game that decides tight seasons. Chelsea were away from home, against a good team, back on the pitch just 48 hours after their last match. This was a real test of their resources and the evidence on the pitch was that they did not quite have enough. Or rather, they did not have enough to render the officiating irrelevant.

Throughout the first half, Chelsea had looked slower and sloppier than their brisk, inventive hosts. Mourinho had made changes from the side who brushed West Ham United aside on Boxing Day. He brought in Jon Obi Mikel for midfield presence and André Schürrle for pace on the break.

It was a Chelsea team set up to counter-attack but Southampton’s willingness to sit deep caught Chelsea slightly unawares. With Diego Costa not looking at his very sharpest – this is his first Christmas programme – Chelsea were more reliant than ever on the incision of Hazard and Fabregas.

Southampton played the better football throughout the first half. Ronald Koeman could not field his first-choice team here, with full-backs Nathanial Clyne and Ryan Bertrand injured and ineligible respectively. But what Koeman did have was his first-choice front three, in Graziano Pelle, Sadio Mané and Dusan Tadic.

Their early combinations should have been warning enough to Chelsea and, 17 minutes in, they took the lead. Pelle beat Gary Cahill to a long ball from the back, knocking it back to Tadic, who cushion-volleyed the ball over the top, finding Mané’s run. Mané raced away from John Terry, who was caught out of place, and his confident finish beat Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea had yet to start playing and it looked as if Southampton were the likelier side to score before the break. Tadic curled a free-kick over the bar, Targett had a shot blocked by Gary Cahill and Pelle stabbed a shot over from the edge of the box.

With the final attack of the first half, though, Chelsea pulled level. Fabregas clipped a perfect pass into the inside left channel and Hazard raced on to it. Facing part-time right-back Maya Yoshida, Hazard darted inside, dummied rather than shooting, came back further inside beyond Toby Alderweireld and found the far bottom corner of the net. It was a brilliant individual goal, the goal of a player determined to deliver his team the three points all by himself.

Once Mourinho put Willian on for Schürrle at half-time, Chelsea had more attacking options and they started to force Southampton back into their penalty area. Both Fonte and Alderweireld had to block shots from Willian before the tangle between Targett and Fabregas – a clear trip and a foul – that so incensed Mourinho. There were still 35 minutes left after that, though, and even with Didier Drogba and Loïc Rémy thrown on, Chelsea could not score the winner they thought they deserved.

The best chance came when James Ward-Prowse underhit a back pass straight to Costa, who lost his footing. After that, they had all the possession and territory but could not quite make a clear chance. Hazard spun and shot just wide, Drogba failed to get a shot away from a Hazard cross, and could not meet a ball which Fabregas hit across the box.

On another day Chelsea might have found a winner but they did not, and looked at the end like they missed the imagination of Oscar, who was ill. “We tried everything, we dominated and we created a lot,” Mourinho said. “We played well.”

Southampton gave everything, especially after Morgan Schneiderlin was sent off for a second yellow card, and clung on to an important point.

“One point against Chelsea is like maybe three against another team,” smiled Koeman. “I am proud of the organisation and the spirit in the team. In some moments we were a bit lucky, but if you don’t have luck against these teams, it is impossible to get a result.”


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Guardian:


Chelsea held by Southampton despite red card for Morgan Schneiderlin

Southampton 1 - 1 Chelsea

Daniel Taylor


When the full story of the Premier League season comes to be told, this may be one of the occasions Chelsea look back on with a measure of satisfaction given they were facing a team in fourth who have overcome recent difficulties and had not dropped a point on every other occasion they had gone in front this season.

Equally José Mourinho and his players will know it could have been considerably better in view of the long spells in the second half when they went looking for the winner only to come up unusually short in attack. Cesc Fàbregas and Eden Hazard played virtually every pass in those 45 minutes apart from the killer one and their frustrations did not stop there on a day when two bookable offences by Morgan Schneiderlin meant Southampton had to get through the last couple of minutes of normal time, plus another four for stoppages, a man down.

The complaints from Mourinho were certainly prolonged after another diving controversy involving one of his players presented Chelsea’s manager with an opportunity to allege that his club were being treated differently from others, presumably by the media as much as the match officials. Fàbregas was disgusted with the yellow card that the referee, Anthony Taylor, showed him early in the second half and the replays supported his case.

Mourinho launched into an impassioned outburst afterwards about “a campaign” against Chelsea and he also called for television replays to be shown to referees when they have made a clear mistake. As always he sounded as if he believed every single word but, despite rightful grievances about the latest incident, if his team are suffering from a reputation, then a good part of that, undeniably, is of their own making.

On a more positive note their response to Sadio Mané’s 17th-minute goal, preceded by a rare positional lapse from John Terry, showed all their qualities of resilience and togetherness. Terry’s expertise has been a considerable factor in why this was the first time Chelsea have conceded a goal in their last four league matches. On this occasion, however, he was caught in two minds between going for the ball and trying to maintain a defensive line and managed to do neither. At 34 Terry’s legs were not going to spare him and Mané, played onside, ran on to Dusan Tadic’s pass before having the composure and presence of mind to lift a bouncing ball over the oncoming Thibaut Courtois.

At that stage Southampton looked full of energy and spirit and the ironic chants of “the Saints are staying up” were noisily reminding everyone about the frequency with which they were portrayed as relegation possibilities, rather than Champions League hopefuls, at the start of the season.

Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama were quick to the ball and strong in the tackle, preventing Fàbregas and Nemanja Matic from dominating the midfield in the way that happened after the interval. Hazard, such a menace throughout the second period, was subdued in the opening half an hour and Matt Targett, one of the teenagers from Southampton’s conveyor belt of seemingly endless young talent, had slotted in so harmoniously that his direct opponent, André Schürrle, was substituted by Willian at half-time. Targett is a 19-year-old left-back of rich promise on this evidence, even if he was grateful to be given the benefit of the doubt after the incident that led to Fàbregas’s booking when it could conceivably have been a penalty decision. There was clear contact between the two players even if Southampton could argue it was Fàbregas moving into his opponent rather than the other way round.

Chelsea took their time to get going but the pattern of the game changed in first-half stoppage time when Fàbregas lifted the ball into the path of Hazard, running through the inside-left channel, and the Belgian was set free for the first time. Hazard, wanting the ball on his right foot, still had plenty to do and had to cut inside the full-back, Maya Yoshida, as well as the nearer centre-half, Toby Alderweireld. He did so brilliantly, finding the space to take aim, and fired his shot into the far corner with power and precision.

Mourinho’s team had so much of the ball after the break that they will be exasperated by their inability to create more chances. Diego Costa had one of his least productive games and, for all the menace of Hazard and Fàbregas, Fraser Forster in Southampton’s goal was surprisingly underworked given how much time the ball spent in and around his penalty area.

Alderweireld showed again what a fine centre-half he is and Ronald Koeman made a sensible decision to replace a tiring Yoshida given that the defender was facing the elusive Hazard and had already been booked.

Didier Drogba immediately started to trouble his opponents when he came off the bench but the best chance for Chelsea came from a mistake by the substitute James Ward-Prowse and a misplaced back-pass that threatened to undo all of Southampton’s defensive work. Costa lost his footing when he had the opportunity to run clear and the home side held on after Schneiderlin’s foul on Fàbregas, following an earlier booking for one on Hazard, left them a man down during the final exchanges.


Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Southampton (4-2-3-1) Forster; Yoshida (Gardos 62), Fonte, Alderweireld, Targett; Wanyama, Schneiderlin; S Davis (Long 77), Mané, Tadic (Ward-Prowse 58); Pellè. Subs not used K Davis, Isgrove, Reed, McCarthy.

Booked Yoshida, Pellè. Sent off Schneiderlin.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Luis; Matic, Mikel (Drogba 74); Schürrle (Willian ht), Fàbregas, Hazard; Costa (Rémy 89). Subs not used Cech, Zouma, Ramires, Azpilicueta.

Booked Matic, Fàbregas


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