football.london

Enzo Maresca playing mind-games or proven wrong at Southampton? Chelsea are happy either way

Enzo Maresca, to many people's surprise, claimed travelling to Southampton would be Chelsea's "toughest" challenge of the season in his pre-match press conference.

The Blues, third in the Premier League going into the match, taking on the bottom-of-the-table Saints at St. Mary's. Nothing too complicated about that, right?

If only that was how Premier League football worked. Imagine that. But we, as journalists, supporters and general spectators, have enough experience in this business by now to realise that football - especially in the English top-flight - is far more complex than that.

Playing away from home in the Premier League - it is never easy. This season especially, away wins seem really difficult to come by.

In fact, there have been 41 away victories in the top-flight thus far from 138 matches - which calculates to 29.71% of games this season being won by the visitors. Of those 41 wins on the road, Chelsea have contributed five of them - their fifth being at St. Mary's on Wednesday evening in a comprehensive victory despite what Maresca predicted beforehand. Mind-games or was he proven wrong?

Either way, the Blues were worlds apart from the Saints on a chilly, soaking wet south coast. Here are some of the main talking points from Chelsea's 5-1 victory at St. Mary's...

Jorgensen impresses but Maresca mind made up

Filip Jorgensen will count himself fortunate that he did not have too much to do during his Premier League debut. The Danish Under-21 international was called into action early on and made a great save, although the offside flag later went up meaning it would not have counted regardless.

However, in the second-half, Mateus Fernandes was denied what looked to be a certain goal by Jorgensen, who replaced Robert Sanchez in the XI despite the Spaniard keeping a clean sheet in the win against Aston Villa at the weekend. Jorgensen did really well to anticipate Fernandes' shot and save it with his legs.

Comfortable with the ball at his feet, fantastic in shot-stopping scenarios - Chelsea supporters have become massively encouraged with what they have seen from Jorgensen in his last two appearances. A Man of the Match performance in Heidenheim and another top display down on the south coast has the Dane in great form.

However, Maresca's mind is already made up regarding who is starting in goal on Sunday as Chelsea travel to arch rivals Tottenham. Asked by football.london whether Jorgensen did enough to convince the head coach to start him at the weekend, the Italian replied: "We will play Sanchez and 10 players [vs Tottenham]. That is the only thing that is for sure."

Madueke shines but is issued warning

That was the Noni Madueke we witnessed right at the start of the season. The 22-year-old was involved in virtually everything good from an attacking perspective for Chelsea in their win against Southampton.

A constant threat down the right-hand side but a menace off the ball as well. Some questionable passing out from the back saw Madueke leap on and win the ball back as goalkeeper Joe Lumley tried to find Kyle Walker-Peters in the centre of the pitch.

Madueke could have undoubtedly gone for goal himself but the winger instead squared it to teammate Christopher Nkunku, who had the simplest of finishes. The England international turned from assister to goal scorer later in the first-half with what we could now call 'the typical Madueke goal'.

The ball is played out to him on the right wing, he dribbles at the defender, one-on-one, before setting the ball out to his left to make a bit of space. And space was found. Madueke then smashed the ball into the far corner via his left foot to score his fifth goal of the season in the Premier League and his sixth in all competitions.

Maresca was asked about Madueke post-match and while he was happy with how the winger performed on the night, he wants to see a more consistent version of the former PSV Eindoven man.

Asked about how he thought he responded after being dropped to the bench against Aston Villa, the Chelsea head coach said: "With Noni, I have personal relation in terms of he can do much more. He can do much more.

"The moment he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit and the reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained. He has to understand that he has to train every day good.

"He has to be ambitious. He scored one tonight, he has to go for the second one and the third one. He has to give more assists.

"But overall, he is doing great, he is doing fantastic. He is doing even better in terms of numbers. Noni has to understand he has to work more because he can be much, much, much better."

Lovely moment for Sancho

It was fantastic to see Jadon Sancho grab his first goal for the club late into the game on Wednesday night. The 24-year-old winger has been in and out of the side since his loan move from Manchester United in the summer transfer window.

For the most part, when he has been called upon, Sancho has been very impressive. He already had three Premier League assists to his name coming into the match at St. Mary's - and while helping your teammates score is nice, Sancho would have been desperate to get his first goal under the belt.

You can see how much it meant to Sancho, who hit the Chelsea badge repeatedly during his celebration.

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more

Premier League

Read full news in source page