Chelsea vs Southampton three lessons learnt: Another shootout win

2: Saul showed off his attacking quality

Tuesday night supporters got to see the true attacking quality of Saul, which he showcased while he was at Atletico Madrid. He had four good chances on the day, two of which forced great saves from Fraser Forster. Another went just wide of the bottom corner. He didn’t score any of the chances he had, but for a side that has had 17 different goal scorers this season, it’s nice to see that Saul could possibly join that list.

Fans complained about the lack of goals from the Blues’ midfield last season with Jorginho only scoring penalties and Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante scoring once in a blue moon. This season has been a little different with each of the aforementioned midfielders getting onto the scoresheet already. Nevertheless, hitting a clean shot from outside the box still isn’t a part of their game, Saul possesses that ability. Sadly, Saul may not be getting many chances to showcase his skills based off his appearances so far this season. He went from a highly anticipated deadline day signing to being Chelsea’s sixth-choice No. 6 merely based off the performances of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Barkley. Saul was supposed to join the rotation between Kovacic, Kante and Jorginho, but Loftus-Cheek has really done well when he has played and Barkley somehow has found his way back into this team, which seemed very unlikely at the start of the season.

Saul had a stinker of a debut against Aston Villa and has really been out favour since then, but based off his performance in the attacking third on Tuesday night, he deserves a second chance to play in some Premier League games. He hasn’t done enough wrong to justify being used solely in the EFL Cup or as a sub in important games. He showed his aerial threat and ability to cleanly strike a ball, which hopefully will appeal to Tuchel and his future plans for the Spanish midfielder.