The two sides were entangled in the midfield from the beginning of the game.
Southampton's midfielder is very capable of running, and Chelsea's midfielder is also capable of running. If Chelsea had problems with their game state last season due to midfielder problems, then now, they will no longer be troubled by this problem.
The joining of Matuidi has indeed strengthened Chelsea's backbone.
This is very important. Without Matuidi, Mourinho may have to use Essien, who is already brittle on the bench, to play as a defensive midfielder. In this case, in Southampton's midfield attack, they
It's hard to say how far support can be given.
But now that Matuidi is here, their defense seems much more stable.
But Matic's performance in this game was also very brave - because Matic was also a Chelsea player before. He joined Chelsea early but was not reused. He later went as part of David Luiz's transfer.
Benfica then performed well in the Portuguese Super League and was chosen by Kiya.
In this way, in this game, Southampton's starting lineup includes three former Chelsea players, Matic, De Bruyne, Lukaku...
In such situations, they tend to appear more motivated.
As soon as Oscar got the ball, he was pressed by Matic. He was forced to turn around to protect the ball. De Bruyne came from the side, quietly stretched his foot and intercepted the ball.
After stealing the ball, De Bruyne did not hesitate at all, but raised his foot and sent a wonderful through ball!
The ball flew past Matuidi and then passed two central defenders. Suarez's lateral movement attracted a lot of attention, while Lukaku accelerated from the right, getting rid of Ahri who hurriedly returned to defense.
Spilicueta strode towards the ball!
"Return to defense!"
Cech loudly directed the defenders, but Terry and Cahill's turns seemed a bit slow. Although they reacted, De Bruyne's exquisite direct pass and Lukaku
In front of the high-speed forward speed, it still seems so slow!
Like a black rhinoceros, Lukaku rumbled into Chelsea's penalty area. De Bruyne's through ball flew right in front of him. He adjusted slightly, faced the attacking goalkeeper, and calmly pushed.
Shoot far!
The ball quickly flew into the blind spot of the goal, one to zero!
In just three minutes, three former Chelsea players teamed up to score a wonderful goal!
Lukaku did not celebrate after scoring, but ran back. After all, it was Chelsea who brought him to the Premier League from Belgium. Without his performance in the Premier League, he would not have come to Southampton...
He just shook hands with his teammates on the way back.
Mourinho shook his head. Southampton's counterattack was too sharp this time. However, Southampton's defense has not been as good as it was at the beginning of the league recently. This is normal because they have started to score more goals recently.
stand up.
Next, Chelsea will launch a good counterattack.
They quickly launched an attack.
Under Southampton's crazy pressing, they continued to launch attacks. William's taking the ball on the wing became the source of their offense. William is an excellent wing attacker. When he can get the ball
, can often pose a threat.
Coupled with the fact that Hazard on the other side also has this ability, Chelsea's offense began to take advantage on both wings.
Luke Shaw relied on his physical and speed advantages to still entangle William. After all, William's absolute speed was not very fast, but on the other side, Klein was unable to withstand Hazard's attack.
Teach kept moving over to make up positions, and then stabilized the defense on that side.
Chelsea relied on running, passing and wing attacks to slowly regain the disadvantage, but relying on this alone, it is still a bit difficult to score goals.
After all, attacks from the wing are always somewhat roundabout, and attack from the center is the way to go.
Although Chelsea has an advantage on the wing, it is still difficult for them to directly threaten the goal, so many times they can only rely on long shots to create opportunities, and Navas kills them one by one.
"What is this guy thinking? He doesn't think that this kind of attack can cause trouble for our defense." Ji Ya thought in his heart.
But now Southampton is defending very firmly, and Chelsea's offense doesn't look like it can score goals. If Mourinho doesn't change, he certainly won't be able to make any changes.
Anyway, Southampton's counterattack is also very sharp. Compared with last season, Southampton's counterattack this season is much faster and easier.
However, as time went by, Ji Ya also saw that Chelsea did a pretty good job defensively, especially in resisting Southampton's counterattack. Before, Lukaku's goal was more of an idea from a few people, but now
Under the opponent's defense, Southampton's defense was repeatedly intercepted in the midfield.
"Let it continue as long as it takes, we are ahead anyway." Ji Ya thought silently in his heart.
He was still a little unsure of what Mourinho was thinking, but until the end of the first half, there was no change in the game. After the final score was 1-0, Noriya felt that Mourinho really had no intention of making any changes.
Or does he think playing like this is enough?
"If Chelsea really plays like this, then they will die. Facing our pressure, they can't score goals with this weak offensive method!" Noriya told the players in the locker room.
The players waved their fists. Even if it was an away game, they didn't think they had anything to worry about. They were the defending champions and didn't have to be afraid of any opponents.
This is a strong mentality. Winning the league championship last season established this mentality. Although many players have left, the core has not changed.
The core is Ji Ya. If Ji Ya doesn't change, they won't change.
However, what Noriya did not expect was that Mourinho did not arrange specific tactics to deal with Southampton. Instead, he used a relatively easy way to deal with Southampton.
After the start of the second half, their tactics still didn't change at all, and they seemed to be scratching the surface. However, they began to get more set pieces.
Corner kick, free kick...
Southampton's overall air defense ability is not bad, especially the height of their two central defenders and midfielder are not low. Otamendi is a little shorter, but he is also 1.83 meters tall.
However, in set pieces, Chelsea's tall players can take advantage of them, especially their two central defenders.
When Noriya began to notice something was wrong, Chelsea scored two goals in a row through two set kicks, taking the lead!
"Holy shit, can you still do this?" Looking at the Chelsea players cheering and hugging each other in the stadium, Ji Ya couldn't help but cursed.
