Southampton 0-3 Chelsea: Hazard, Barkley & Morata keep pressure on title rivals

Barkley & Hazard inspired Chelsea to victory at Southampton as keep pressure on title rivals

Match Events

25' WHAT A MISS! Ings somehow rockets the ball over the crossbar

What a chance for Ings! Redmond holds up the ball over on the left wing and waits for an overlapping from Bertrand. The defender then swings a brilliant ball into the box, where Ings meets it in front of goal but somehow misses from six yards out.

30' GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Chelsea (Hazard)

GOAL! It's 1-0 to Chelsea! Hojbjerg is caught on the ball by Barkley and allows the midfielder to set up Hazard, who then comfortably curls a strike past McCarthy and into the back of the net.

37' NICE TRY! Gabbiadini‘s shot saved

Kante makes a clever run into the right-hand side of the hosts' box and latches on to a throughball from Hazard. He spins round Bertrand and tries to tee up the Belgian, but he has the ball poked away before he can do so.

57' GOAL! Southampton 0-2 Chelsea (Barkley)

GOAL! It's a first Chelsea goal for Barkley, who has made it 2-0! 

A free-kick is fired over to the far post and finds Giroud, who sends an acrobatic scissor kick across the face of goal that Barkley converts into an empty net.

93' GOAL! Southampton 0-3 Chelsea (Morata)

GOAL! Morata makes it 3-0! Hazard pokes a lovely pass into the Southampton penalty area and straight to Morata, who then pulls off a wonderful dinked finish to get the better of the onrushing McCarthy. Job done for Chelsea.

Match Report

Chelsea kept the pressure on Manchester City and Liverpool as they temporarily moved to the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win at Southampton.

The Blues are a rejuvenated side under Maurizio Sarri and two men inspired by the new manager this term were influential on Sunday, with Ross Barkley creating Eden Hazard's opener and netting the second himself to open his account for the visitors, before the Belgium star teed up a third for Alvaro Morata.

Barkley was on the very fringes of Antonio Conte's Chelsea team, in which the system shackled star performer Hazard, but the pair are thriving now and combined to devastating effect at St Mary's.

Although Southampton had chances to make the three points a trickier conquest for the visitors, Sarri's men were deserving winners as they sent a message to their closest title rivals, who face each other at Anfield later in the day.

Line-ups

Southampton XI: M. Yoshida, Bertrand, Alex McCarthy, Gabbiadini, Cédric Soares, D. Ings, Redmond, Lemina, Højbjerg, J. Bednarek, Hoedt

Subs: S.Long, S.Davis, Romeu, Austin, J. Vestergaard, Angus Gunn, Targett

Chelsea XI: Willian, D.Luiz, Azpilicueta, E. Hazard, O. Giroud, M.Alonso, Barkley, Jorginho, A. Rüdiger, Kepa, N. Kanté

Subs: Fàbregas, G. Cahill, W. Caballero, Pedro, Morata, M. Kovačić, Zappacosta