Southampton (Saints) cannot afford to relinquish their chances of protecting their English premier league status as they have been very much unstable with regards to the out come of games they have played.
As the Saints have stable in chunk of the games they have been made to play in the Premier League; failing to even clutch positive results against their Leicester City, which is also one of the newly promoted clubs from the Championship into the 2024/25 league season.
Can the corner be turned around tonight for Southampton at the St. Mary’s Stadium against a much improved side, Chelsea under their new manager, Enzo Maresca who during the pre-match conference has iterated that, his side is not in any quest to win the English premier league this season, “we are not in title race. We are not, in my opinion. Absolutely.”
Therefore, it seem there is certainly a leeway for the Saints to play above themselves as they have they will be further bruised in terms of the team bad run of results which would further proceed to lock them up in the dungeons of relegation.
In Southampton’s last five games have won two games, lost two and secured a draw while Chelsea have also recorded almost a hundred percent results, having won four and just a draw in their last five game. Clearly, Chelsea is the favorite to win heading into the game.
However, the certainly have just a miniature option of further gifting their much needed points to a side, who’s manager have stated emphatically, that, irrespective of their position as the third best placed team in the league have no intentions of winning the Premier League.
Significantly, Southampton have succeeded in picking of victories against Chelsea in their last two games, beating them by 2-1 and 1-0 respectively yet, both teams in their last five meetings have seen Chelsea winning three out of the five.
The Saints would be missing close to ten of their players in this crucial game against Chelsea in the round-14 batch of league games; Bazunu, Bednarek, Dibling, Downes, Harwood-Bellis, Adams Lallana, Ramsdale, Smallbone, Stewart, and Ugochukwu will all not play a role in the game due to various forms of injuries they have sustained.
Meanwhile, Chelsea will have majority of their players available to make meaningful statement against Southampton. The team’s captain, Reece James would not be available due to a thigh injury plus, Kellyman who is also ruled out with a muscle injury.
All factors are not pointing to Southampton winning or even securing a point out of the game however, the Saints playing above themselves with the twelve man, available to them in their home grounds cannot afford slipping off in tonight’s game against Chelsea.
