Lampard will fear for his future if shocking Chelsea home form doesn’t improve after Saints stuns Blues at the Bridge
SOUTHAMPTON secured back-to-back away wins while Frank Lampard can’t wait to see the back of Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea lost consecutive home games in the Premier League for the first time in more than eight years and it is becoming a big concern.
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1-1 vs Leicester
2-2 vs Sheffield United
1-2 vs Liverpool
2-0 vs Brighton
1-0 vs Newcastle
2-0 vs Crystal Palace
0-1 vs West Ham
2-1 vs Aston Villa
0-1 vs Bournemouth
0-2 vs Southampton
The Saints join Bournemouth as the latest team to turn up in West London with the perfect plan to roll over a Chelsea team which plays like lions away yet like losers at home.
A spectacular solo effort from Michael Obafemi and a brilliant 25-pass move finished off by Nathan Redmond has made this the perfect Christmas so far for the Saints.
Six points from two tough trips, firstly to Aston Villa last weekend and now to Chelsea’s increasingly fragile home turf, all helping to put distance between them and the bottom three.
For Chelsea it is two steps backwards for every step forward at the moment.
Going to Tottenham last Sunday and nicking the spoils in a feisty London derby is a massive psychological boost but it means nothing if you can’t build on it in the following game.
Lampard was playing for Chelsea the last time they were sunk in successive home league games - that’s how long ago it was.
A 5-3 stuffing by Arsenal followed by 2-1 at home to Liverpool, under the dreaded Andre Villas-Boas who didn’t last too long in the job.
Lampard should have a much longer shelf life as the incumbent manager but he has already admitted there are certain ‘non negotiables’ in this job.
Home form is presumably one of them.
This was not a case of Saints getting away with it either. More the other way around. It could easily have been a proper thumping at home to a team which had not kept a clean sheet since mid-September, until today.
Chelsea had twice as many shots as Southampton but exactly the same number on target - three.
Lampard also made three changes to the team but stuck with the same 3-4-3 formation from Sunday’s unexpected win at Spurs.
Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl took the unusual step of resting in-form striker Danny Ings.
In fact the front two were rotated, with Michael Obafemi and Che Adams replacing Ings and strike partner Shane Long.
It turned out to be a masterstroke. Obafemi in particular was dynamic - given a rare start the Irishman made the most of it with his first Premier League goal in more than a year.
Stocky and short, he was a physical handful for Chelsea’s defensive trio of Antonio Rudgier, Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma.
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When he scored to put Southampton ahead on 31 minutes, it was Tomori who missed the through ball from Pierre-Emile Hojberg and Zouma who was turned mercilessly to allow Obafemi the space to curl a well-crafted shot into the top left corner of the net.
The icing on the cake was seeing delirious Hasenhuttl leap out of his technical area and stray onto the pitch to perform a jig of delight - the Hasenhuttl shuffle maybe?
The Austrian quickly regained his composure and apologised to fourth official Gavin Ward, as much for his dancing as his behaviour supposedly.
Lampard has demanded his players show some ‘balls’ in games like these. By that he means take risks and throw caution to the wind to break down resolute teams like Southampton, Bournemouth and West Ham.
When that wasn’t happening today, he was forced to abandon his gameplan and took off Zouma to be replaced by Mason Mount to provide more zip up front.
Yet the visitors came within a whisker of going two up just four minutes into the second half.
Nathan Redmond’s nifty footwork took him past Rudiger at speed and he raced to the by-line before squaring a ball across the six yard box.
Tomori was lucky to get a toe poke to safety as the last line of defence with Adams breathing down his neck.
Man of the Match Redmond was infinitely more successful with 18 minutes to go as Chelsea lost their shape in the closing stages.
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Stuart Armstrong was running diagonally towards goal, evaded one challenge and looked to have lost control of the ball.
But N’Golo Kante inadvertently poked his clearance across his own area towards Redmond who raced through and stabbed the ball beyond the dive of Kepa to seal the victory.
It was the final piece to a 25-pass move that underlined how comfortable Southampton felt in this match and how Chelsea were embarrassed yet again.