Southampton - Match Preview

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Happy New Year to everyone here. Chelsea travel to Southampton on New Year's Day 2014 in good spirits after the 2-1 home win against Liverpool. The win on Sunday took Chelsea to 3rd in the table on 40 points and gave much needed momentum to Chelsea's title challenge. Southampton meanwhile are currently going through a lean spell after a good start to the season. The Saints have won just 1 of their last 8 matches and that includes the last time these two sides met exactly a month ago at Stamford Bridge. Southampton made a flying start in that game taking the lead inside 13 seconds through Jay Rodriguez but the Blues recovered in the 2nd half to eventually run out 3-1 winners.

Date/Time: Wednesday 1 January 2014, 15:00 GMT, 10:00 EST, 23:00 HKT

Venue: St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, UK

About the Opposition: Southampton made their best ever start to a Premier League campaign . Before travelling to Stamford Bridge last month, Southampton were just 2 points and 2 places below Chelsea but a difficult December period has seen a 13-point gap open up between the two sides. The Saints are still in the top 10 and manager Mauricio Pochettino will not be too concerned with their recent form given the difficult nature of those games.

Latest Meetings: The most recent meeting ended with a 3-1 win to Chelsea but Southampton took 4 points in meetings between the sides last season. Rickie Lambert inspired Southampton to a 2-1 win when they last played at St. Mary's. In the other fixture, Southampton came back from 2 goals down to take a deserved point from Stamford Bridge. These two sides also met in the FA Cup last season when Chelsea won comfortably 5-1.

Recent form

Southampton: LDDLWL

Chelsea: WWLDWW

Team News

Southampton: Striker Pablo Daniel Osvaldo (illness) will be monitored ahead of the game, but Pochettino has ruled out both Victor Wanyama (fractured leg) and Artur Boruc (hand). Morgan Schneiderlin returns from suspension while Nathaniel Clyne could also feature in defence

Chelsea: David Luiz is suspended having picked up his 5th booking of the season against Liverpool. Ramires should take his place having missed the Liverpool game through suspension. Frank Lampard came off at half-time on Sunday with a thigh problem and will miss this game while Ivanovic is also a doubt with a lateral ligament injury. Ryan Bertrand and Marco van Ginkel are the other absentees

Possible Lineups

Southampton: Davis; Clyne Lovren Fonte Shaw; Schneiderlin Cork Ward-Prowse; Lallana Rodriguez; Lambert

Chelsea: Cech; Azpilicueta Cahill Terry Cole; Mikel Ramires Oscar; Hazard Schurrle; Torres

Stats and Facts

- Southampton haven't won at home since the 4-1 win over Hull on November 9th

- Jay Rodriguez has opened the scoring in 3 of those 4 matches and has 6 goals in his last 7 games, while John Terry has netted in each of the last two meetings between the sides

- Southampton started the season with six clean sheets in their opening nine games, but have kept just one in 10 matches since, conceding 17 goals

- 37% of the goals Chelsea have conceded this season have come from set-pieces, the highest proportion in the Premier League

- No Chelsea striker scored an away goal in the Premier League in 2013

- Petr Cech's next cleansheet will equal Peter Bonetti's club record of 208

- Chelsea have gained 14 points from losing positions this season, the most in the Premier League

Odds (via Skybet)

Home Win Draw Away Win

Southampton 3/1 Draw 23/10 Chelsea 1/1

Coverage

United Kingdom: BBC Radio 5 Live, BT Sport 1, BBC One

United States: NBC Sports Network

Australia: Fox Sports 3 Australia

Asia: Fox/Star Sports

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[CHOULO19 24,332]

Great work, mate. Should be another great tactical battle like one at the Bridge.