Premier League: Southampton v Chelsea match preview

A look ahead to the New Year’s Day fixture at St Mary’s

Jose Mourinho will hope to guide his Chelsea team to victory against Southampton (GETTY IMAGES)

This will be the fifth time these two sides have met in just under a year and Chelsea have got the better of their opponents on half of those occasions, with the most recent coming in a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge at the start of the month.

That defeat has become somewhat of a blueprint of the Saints’ season to date with Jay Rodriguez opening the scoring inside a minute. Mauricio Pochettino’s side began the season in blistering fashion, and heading into November they were third in table. However, Southampton were unable to maintain their position in the second half, and after only two wins in their last 10 to cap off a disappointing end to 2013, they have gradually slid down to ninth.

In contrast, Jose Mourinho’s men have won six of their last eight games as they sit in third, two points behind leaders Arsenal at the halfway point. Mourinho will be hoping to finish the gruelling run of fixtures, which included a trip to the Emirates as well as the visit of Liverpool on Sunday, with a win and claim 10 out a possible 12 over the festive period.

Chelsea may rotate their side in attack with Juan Mata, Andre Schurrle and Fernando Torres all left out of the starting line-up in their 2-1 victory over Liverpool, but with four in four against the Saints, the Special One maybe inclined to feature Demba Ba up top.

KICK-OFF: New Year's Day, 3pm

PAST THREE MEETINGS…

Chelsea 3 (Cahill, Terry, Ba) Southampton 1 (Rodriguez), Premier League, December 2013

Southampton 2 (Rodriguez, Lambert) Chelsea 1 (Terry), Premier League, March 2013

Chelsea 2 (Ba, Hazard) Southampton 2 (Lambert, Puncheon), Premier League, January 2013

STATS…

Southampton:

Keeper Paulo Gazzaniga has made only six saves in the Premier League this season but has conceded 10 goals. Arthur Boruc makes four saves for every goal conceded (8).

Southampton have scored at least two goals in six of their last seven home Premier League games.

Chelsea:

Chelsea have conceded a higher proportion of goals from set-pieces than any other side in the Premier League this season (37%) and will have to be aware of the danger posed by Southampton who have scored 23% of their 26 goals from set pieces.

Between Chelsea’s four forwards (Eto’o, Torres, Schurrle and Ba) combined, on-loan striker Romelu Lukaku has scored the same number of goals in the league this season (9).

ODDS…

Fulham to win: 2.3

West Ham to win: 3.1

Draw: 3.3

TV: Live on BT Sport 1 at 3pm. Highlights on BBC 1 at 10.50pm