The scoreline at St. Mary’s last night does little to tell the story of just how dominant Chelsea were against Southampton last night.
Despite winning 5-1 on the road, Chelsea racked up the most expected goals of any away side in Premier League history.
Even though the likes of Joao Felix really impressed in a heavily rotated side, he was one of the players guilty of missing a number of big chances in front of goal.
Enzo Maresca, Manager of Chelsea, speaks to Noni Madueke during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Chelsea FC at St Mary's Stadium...
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Enzo Maresca changed Chelsea’s pressing approach during win over Southampton
Maresca took a risk making seven changes to his starting side last night from the last win against Aston Villa, and after 15 minutes or so it was unclear if the decision was going to pay off.
With the game level at 1-1, it was the Saints who perhaps looked most likely to score before presenting Christopher Nkunku a goal on a plate.
The manager has stated that he tweaked the tactics around this time in order to get his side to start pressing man-to-man.
He said to Football London: “I’m very happy with the five we scored but I’m not happy about the first 10 or 15 minutes when we struggled. The reason why we struggled is because we prepared the game to press them man-to-man but in the first 15 or 20 minutes, we were not pressing them man-to-man.
“This is a team that if you don’t go man-to-man, then you struggle to recover the ball.
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“Then after that, we adjusted that and the game was much better. But we could score more, but five goals is enough.”
Maresca was furious straight after Chelsea scored vs Southampton
That goal that Nkunku scored did not see the boss celebrate, with Maresca instead furiously calling some of his players over to talk tactics in the aftermath.
This is likely where he got the instructions across that they were not pressing properly, and it is fair to say their opponents didn’t get a sniff after this.
It is a sign of the incredibly high standards that have been set in just the first few months under the Italian, with them finding themselves second in the Premier League table.
While Maresca will certainly want no talk of it yet, it is getting harder to argue against Chelsea having a say in the title race this season.
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