Chelsea’s relentless December schedule continues tonight against Southampton at St Mary’s, our first floodlit Premier League game of the season. Club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton prepare us for the Solent…
After facing Leicester City 13 days ago at the King Power Stadium – where our win was more comfortable than the 2-1 scoreline suggests – we are hosted tonight by another of the sides promoted to the top flight ahead of this season.
The fixture on the south coast kicks off at 7.30pm and, like all Premier League fixtures in this round, will be live-streamed in the UK on Prime Video.
Promisingly for the Blues and Enzo Maresca, we have a good record against recently promoted clubs, with eight wins recorded from our 13 away games against top-flight newcomers since the start of the 2020/21 season. Only one of those matches ended in defeat.
Russell Martin’s side have the advantage of their draw against Brighton taking place last Friday, which has allowed them two more days than the Blues to recover and prepare for tonight’s meeting.
In their last outing at St Mary's, Southampton ran leaders Liverpool hard before succumbing to a 3-2 defeat. That result meant the league's bottom club has won only one of their six home league fixtures thus far.
The south coast’s top-flight contingent, the others being Brighton and Bournemouth, comprise three of Chelsea’s five most productive away league grounds, alhough Saints won both our encounters in their recent relegation season.
Sunday’s impressive victory over Aston Villa strengthened the Blues’ top-four claims but Maresca has damped talk of a title challenge. That said, a win on the banks of the Itchen would put Chelsea second if Arsenal drop points against Manchester United in north London the same evening.
Chelsea team news
Maresca’s squad-conjuring skills will be tested by three Premier League fixtures in eight days – up to now he has rotated teams for different competitions in midweek and at the weekend.
The Italian’s tactical versatility was evident in our accomplished 3-0 victory on Sunday, with Aston Villa's players marked man-to-man and Moises Caicedo inverting into midfield from right-back.
The selection of Romeo Lavia, who joined the Blues from Southampton in the summer of 2023, helped free skipper Enzo Fernandez, whose attacking numbers have rocketed with goals in successive league games plus five assists on all fronts since November.
Villa were swamped by Chelsea’s energy and organization and the Blues have now been dispossessed fewer times (104) than any other top-flight team.
Tonight’s starting XI will need to be considered alongside our busy December schedule, which includes a trip to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Wesley Fofana is set for a spell on the sidelines after coming off with a hamstring injury against Villa and Maresca will need to decide which of Axel Disasi, Tosin Adarabioyo and Benoit Badiashile steps into the team – unless another surprise is sprung.
After Sunday’s win, Maresca said the vision and creativity of Cole Palmer and Joao Felix are the reason people buy tickets. Whether he opts to deploy the duo in tandem remains to be seen.
Likewise, leading scorer in all competitions Christopher Nkunku could be an option to come in for Nicolas Jackson, who has recorded the most sprints (571) in the league this season but has opened the scoring six times for the Blues this term.
Combined goals and assists 2024/25 (all competitions)
Chelsea v Southampton – the history
This league fixture was first played at The Dell on 4 October 1924, so its centenary was two months ago.
The goalless Division Two encounter was virtually featureless except for a tremendous save by Chelsea keeper Ben Howard Baker, using his world-record high jump skills to push away a goalbound shot.
Six decades later, in March 1986, a free-kick scored by skipper Colin Pates and brilliantly conceived by Pat Nevin was enough to secure the points on the south coast and edge John Hollins’ side up to fourth.
The match is more famous for coming the day before our 5-4 Full Members’ Cup final victory over Manchester City at Wembley, meaning the Londoners played over consecutive days – with ten of the same starting XI.
Even more noteworthy was the Boxing Day meeting 25 years ago, a 2-1 Blues win at The Dell, when Chelsea became the first Premier League club to field a starting XI composed entirely of overseas players.
Frustratingly, in the 2022/23 campaign that saw them relegated from the top flight, the Saints beat the Blues home and away. That included our first loss on their ground since 2013 – a 2-1 loss in which Lavia cancelled out Raheem Sterling’s opener.
The Blues’ record victory against the Saints came the season before, in April 2022 under Thomas Tuchel, a 6-0 mauling in which Marcos Alonso opened the floodgates in the eighth minute. Mason Mount and Timo Werner both doubled up and Kai Havertz also helped himself to a goal – all before the 55th minute.
Know this…
This is Chelsea's 50th league visit to Southampton. Our league wins percentage at Southampton is 44.9% – our fifth-best against current Premier League clubs behind Bournemouth (55.6%), Palace (59.3%), Fulham (61.5%) and Brighton (66.7%).
The Blues have won more Premier League fixtures at Southampton (14) than anywhere except Tottenham (15).
Chelsea have used 28 outfield players across all competitions, and 17 of them have contributed towards our goals or assists.
Cole Palmer has scored his first 30 Premier League goals for us in just 46 games – only Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (41) was quicker.
Levi Colwill has made 973 passes so far in this season’s top flight, behind only Virgil van Dijk (1050) and ahead of Saints pair Jan Bednarek (948) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (900).
Chelsea have an identical league record to Arsenal and are third merely because of alphabetical order. Any of the Gunners’ previous names – Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal, even Dial Square – would have had us in second.
West London-born former merchant seaman George Thomas, the builder and owner of Southampton’s old Dell stadium, was also a founding director of Chelsea in 1905.
Nicolas Jackson and Pedro Neto have accrued four Premier League yellow cards and must avoid another up to and including Matchweek 19 at the end of December to avoid a statutory ban.
Chelsea will discover our three group stage opponents for next summer’s FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday. The draw in Miami, USA, starts at 6pm UK time.