Chelsea 0-1 Southampton: Three talking points

Even more Chelsea fans have had enough of Graham Potter as the Blues have lost yet another game with a less than great performance. It has added to the frustration that the fans were already, justifiably, feeling. It’s OK, you can agree that the situation is horrendous without wanting the manager sacked. Appreciating the situation is knowing that no one player will change it as it has to be changed by the manager, working with his players. The Southampton loss was met with outrage, but here are three major talking points that impacted the result.

Set piece threats involve aerial threats but also good deliveries

Chelsea wasted some of the best opportunities that Southampton presented to them: set pieces. CFC, for a long time, has not had someone with the aerial presence to help them dominate attacking set pieces and consistently create shots from there. Southampton fouled Chelsea 25 times as a way of breaking up the Blues rhythm. CFC also had eight corners in the game. Those is at least 33 opportunities to get the ball into the box to cause some problems for the opposition, especially when you have a 1.94m aerially dominant presence in Benoit Badiashile.

Unfortunately, Chelsea did not do nearly enough with these opportunities, because the deliveries were so poor. Ben Chilwell, Joao Felix and Mason all attempted 11 crosses combined, and completed none. Chilwell particularly, because he was on corners. Paul Onuachu was the only player taller than Badiashile on the pitch, and he came off after 59 minutes. The Blues got seven corners in the second half. There was a shocking lack of quality in the deliveries into the box. Chelsea has everything they need to be a force in set piece situations, but the aerial presence needs to go with quality deliveries. Chelsea has one, now they need the other.

Chelsea still struggles against intense pressure

Since Thomas Tuchel took over and even before, Chelsea has had problems against high pressing teams. This is not strange as it is very difficult to play against a well-coordinated press. For the Blues particularly, it’s a problem because they do not have enough players that can withstand pressure. They had Thiago Silva and Jorginho. Mateo Kovacic has always been good at getting out of tight spaces too, and recently, Benoit Badiashile, who arrived this January. The west London side now has just Silva, Badiashile and Kovacic.

Only two of these players played against Southampton and in a midfield pivot with only one able to withstand pressure, you find yourself needing to go long to the forwards as quickly as possible, but Chelsea has no forward that can keep the ball in the final third. This creates a chaotic game that favors the high pressing team, because they can force errors and pounce. Southampton’s pressure in fact nearly gave them an early goal in the game.

Execution was poor

Chelsea got into good areas and had some good moments, but at almost every point in the game the execution on display was really lacking in quality. Felix completed 0/4 crosses and 2/7 dribbles. Chilwell also completed 0/6 crosses. This is just an example of the many ways CFC players failed to execute football actions well. It can be epitomised by Raheem Sterling shooting straight at the Southampton goalkeeper from point blank range.