Chelsea have risen into second spot in the Premier League table courtesy of a 5-1 success over 10-man Southampton at St Mary’s on Wednesday night.
The Blues are now on 28 points from their opening 14 matches of the season, seven points behind leaders Liverpool.
A lively opening 17 minutes at St Mary’s produced three goals, with Axel Disasi heading Chelsea into an early lead from an Enzo Fernandez corner, before Joe Aribo converted a cross from Kyle Walker-Peters to make it 1-1.
The Blues were back ahead just six minutes after the leveller, though, with Christopher Nkunku finding the back of the net after a horrible mistake from Southampton goalkeeper Joe Lumley, who misplaced a pass while out of his goal, and Noni Madueke found Nkunku, with the Frenchman on hand to send his side back into the lead.
Madueke then got his name on the scoresheet in the 34th minute, picking out the bottom corner with an excellent finish after being found by Joao Felix, with Southampton staring at a 11th league defeat of the campaign.
It went from bad to worse for the Saints before the end of the first period, with Jack Stephens handed a straight red card, following a VAR review, for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair inside the Chelsea penalty box.
In truth, Southampton never threatened to make the second half uncomfortable for Chelsea, who added a fourth in the 77th minute through Cole Palmer before scoring a fifth in the final stages through Jadon Sancho.
