For the first time all season, Enzo Maresca’s midweek-weekend squad rotation will be put to the test. Up to this point, every Premier League match, all thirteen we’ve played, had been on a weekend, and every non-Premier League match, be that League Cup or UEFA Conference League, had been midweek. So Maresca could use his “A” lineups for the former and his “B” lineups for the latter.
But here we have a Premier League match that’s midweek, and even though Southampton are the worst Premier League team at the moment, they’re still a Premier League team. They cannot, should not, must not be taken lightly, lest we fall into the most classic of all classic trap games: the letdown following our best performance.
Is our B lineup better than any lineup Southampton can put out? Maybe! But it’s a tricky situation to manage, both competitively and in terms of perception and expectations (and workload, even). Over to you, Enzo.
Date / Time: Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 19:30 GMT; 2:30pm EST; 1am IST
Venue: St Mary’s, Southampton, England
Referee: Tony Harrington (on pitch); Matt Donohue (VAR)
Forecast: rain coming in
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); none (India); SuperSport Variety (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Amazon Prime (UK); Peacock (USA); Disney+ Hotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Southampton v Liverpool - Premier League - St Mary’s Stadium Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images
Southampton team news: The Saints came up through the playoffs last season, but their time back in the Premier League has not been fun. They have just one win and five points from the first thirteen games, sitting rock bottom of the table and already six points adrift of safety.
But as Maresca himself pointed out, they have played some close games against some of the better teams in the league, including last time out at home when Liverpool had to come from behind to squeak out a 3-2 win. And Southampton’s last game was actually on Friday, when they took points off Brighton in a 1-1 away draw.
That bit of extra rest could come in handy given their extensive injury list, to which they’ve now also added the suspensions of Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Tyler-Jay Dibling, and Flynn “no-hyphen” Downes. Harwood-Bellis and Downes, the spine for manager Russell Martin’s setup, lead the team in minutes while Dibling leads all their attacking players in the same category. Harwood-Bellis’s three goals, just one behind leading scorers Cameron Archer and Adam Armstrong will be missed as well.
Southampton are also without their top two goalkeepers, Aaron Ramsdale and Gavin Bazunu, which means that either veteran Alex McCarthy or lower-league journeyman Joe Lumley will get another start. Jan Bednarek, Adam Lallana, Paul Onuachu, Ross Stewart, and Will Smallbone complete their league-leading injury list.
Oh, and Chelsea loanee Lesley Ugochukwu is ineligible, though he’s hardly played anyway.
So, Southampton will either get blown away, or they’re about to produce some sort of miracle win.
Chelsea Training and Press Conference Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Chelsea team news: Thanks in part to the aforementioned rotation policy, our injury record this season has been quite good. However, we do currently have frequent treatment room fliers Reece James and Wesley Fofana adding some more miles to their games-missed accounts with hamstring injuries.
Maresca’s doing his utmost to treat this game seriously, so hopefully his charges follow suit, regardless of selection.
“It’s the worst game since we start the season, for us, and will be the toughest game since we start the season. We need to be ready, otherwise it will be a bad day for us. The reason why, because if you analyse the results, they’re probably there [bottom of the league] but in terms of performance, they were winning against Liverpool, they lost against City 1-0, they drew with Brighton.
“The way they have played since last year because I was in the Championship with Southampton last year, I know them quite well. They are very brave and it is very clear what they want; they want to keep the ball and we want the same, and it will be, for sure, a tough, tough game and we need to be ready.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Previously: Southampton were relegated from the Premier League in 2022-23 but somehow they won both of their games against us that season, taking nearly 25% (6) of their total points for the season (25) from us. We did win at St Mary’s 6-0 before then though.