Ross Barkley was the standout performer as Chelsea won 3-0 at Southampton on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Englishman assisted Eden Hazard’s opener and later netted himself, before substitute Alvaro Morata secured the team’s second victory this week after a Europa League win on Thursday.
The match began brightly for the Blues as Willian had a shot deflected onto the crossbar after just eight minutes.
It took a while before the Saints created their first serious chance, though when they did, they should have taken the lead.
Shortly after the midway point of the first half, Danny Ings blasted over from inside the six-yard box when Ryan Bertand escaped Cesar Azpilicueta and picked him out with an inch-perfect cross.
A minute later, Maurizio Sarri’s men appeared hard done by not to get a penalty as Olivier Giroud was clumsily brought down by Wesley Hoedt.
However this soon proved irrelevant as Ross Barkley battled to win the ball back from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the Saints’ own half.
Barkley then threaded a simple ball through to Eden Hazard who calmly finished a one-on-one against Alex McCarthy to put Chelsea 1-0 ahead on the half-hour mark.
Southampton started the second half with their second fantastic chance of the match, this time it was Bertand who got on the end of a fantastic cross and volleyed over from close range.
Ten minutes later, Willian floated a free kick out to an unmarked Olivier Giroud on the right hand side.
The Frenchman produced an acrobatic scissor kick back across goal which landed at the feet of Ross Barkley, who tapped in from two yards to double Chelsea’s lead.
It was later revealed that David Luiz rather deviously grabbed hold of Giroud’s marker, Hojbjerg, preventing him from running with the attacker and allowing the goal to be created.
The match then largely petered out, though Southampton had two late chances.
One was heroically blocked by Antonio Rudiger, the other well saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Alvaro Morata came on as a substitute late on and was provided with two one-on-one opportunities by Eden Hazard.
Despite missing the first, the Spanish striker kept his head up and dinked the second over McCarthy in injury time to wrap up the three points in style.
–
Source: talkSPORT
