Chelsea vs. Soton: Predictions for setting up one more trip to Wembley
Mark Hughes will be happy to not have to see Chelsea for a few months after this game. Depending on this FA Cup semi-final and Southampton’s decision this summer, it could be longer than that.
Chelsea defeated Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final last season. United did the same yesterday. Now Chelsea need to overcome Southampton for the third time this season, and Mark Hughes for the fourth, to book a date with Jose Mourinho at Wembley. Hopefully the Blues won’t need another comeback to see off the Saints.
Kevin Peacock: Chelsea 4 – 1 Southampton. With Chelsea’s 10th false dawn of the season in full flow, this can only end in convincing win. Alvaro Morata’s show of petulance against Burnley has him on the naughty step. Olivier Giroud bangs in a hat-trick and Eden Hazard wraps up the win. Chelsea obviously won’t keep a clean sheet.
Scott Brant: 3 – 1. Reduced to praying for a Spurs collapse and the FA Cup trophy to salvage a season. A compelling victory would be nice. Eden Hazard hopefully to have a much overdue stand-out match, including two goals.
Hugo Amaya: 1 – 0. For the first time in a long time the Blues will remember how to defend. Chelsea know what it takes to beat Southampton this time and will execute the tactics expertly. The one goal will be enough to get the boys through and move on.
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George Perry: 2:21.41. N’Golo Kante will pace the lead group of women in the London Marathon for the first 20 miles, then casually jog the remainder of the race to finish in 2:21.41 as his pre-game warm-up. He’ll grab a smoothie and a massage, and be ready to go against the Saints.
Daniel Mcclue: 3 – 1. The second half of the previous match against Southampton and the whole Burnley match was something different from Chelsea. They seem to have accepted their fate and are playing with urgency and confidence. Hazard gets a hat-trick and Giroud does nothing, but people blame Morata and Bakayoko for the Frenchman’s poor showing.
Abhishek Pancholi: 3 – 1. The Blues appear to have learnt their lessons from their first half no-show against the same opponents barely a week ago. Hazard gets an opportunity to combine with Giroud from the start and it turns out to be as beautiful as the Frenchman. Willian gets on the scoresheet yet again while Morata adds another to go with Giroud’s opening goal.
Nate Hofmann: 4 – 0. If you’ll excuse the basketball analogy, Southampton tried to dunk on Chelsea last week and got rejected. Now Chelsea is sprinting to the other end of the court, and is about to dunk on Southampton so hard the backboard will shatter. Two for Morata, one for Willian, and a Hazard penalty.
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