The Blues Are Back - Chelsea vs. Southampton Game Preview

After demonstrating their power against Tottenham Hotspurs in the semi-finals of FA Cup played at Wembley, Chelsea is looking forward to the Premiership matches.

They have a lot of work in the near future and demolishing Tottenham only increased their morale before the game against Southampton.

Meanwhile, the Saints are in the middle of the table without any chances to go up or down, and they are in a position to play these several games with no pressure at all. Manager Claude Puel could give a chance to some players that haven't appear often on the pitch this season.

After they had been beaten 2-0 by Manchester United, many started doubting Chelsea's ability to win the Premier League this season, especially since Tottenham displayed their magnificent form recently. After this weekend everything changed. Chelsea is again number one contender for the title, but they still have a lot of work to do, as they only have 4 points advantage over the Hotspurs.

The first obstacle is Southampton, the team who is a regular customer for them when playing at Stamford Bridge. The Blues lost only one match playing at their ground against Southampton in the last 7, putting down three wins and three draws. But three points tonight is the only option, and anything but that will be considered as a defeat.

In order for them to avoid any troubles, Diego Costa must end his five-game streak without scoring.

Southampton has three wins, three defeats and one draw in the last 7 matches, but when looking away games in the last four, they have three victories and only one defeat.

They are struggling without Virgil van Dijk and it is evident that the Dutch defender means a lot for their defense and since he is gone their overall performance was on a much lower level.

In the last 7 games, Southampton was the team that conceded first, and later they were chasing the result. This has been a major problem for them and one of the reasons why they have lost many points this season.

In head to head matches, Chelsea has a better record, as the Blues have 40 wins total against 30 wins from Southampton. In 98 games so far in history, only 28 were ended without a winner.

In the more recent times, in the nine last meetings, Chelsea has four victories, three games were finished with a draw and Southampton has won twice.

But one thing is interesting. That is the fact that Southampton conceded in the last 14 matches against Chelsea, which apparently shows that they cannot withstand Chelsea's style of game.

We think that the home team is an absolute favorite tonight, and anything but their convincing win with 2 goals margin, would be a surprise.

The odds for that outcome are excellent, and we think that you should try them. Also, a good bet is Chelsea to score in both half times, so you should take that into consideration as well.