Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea won the new year’s day encounter vs Southampton away by 3 goals and keep up the chase on Arsenal and Man City who both won their matches on new year’s day as well.  Despite a goalless first half from both sides, it was Chelsea who were attacking and dominating the play even though lots of chances were wasted in the 1st half. Then, Jose Mourinho brought in Oscar and Willian as impact substitutes and they influenced the result as both of them scored. The first goal though was scored by Fernando Torres. This 3 goals coupled with our incredible, unbeatable defense lately secured the result with 10 points of 12 in the last four games during the festive period.

Interesting stat: Not any Chelsea striker managed to score a goal away from Stamford Bridge in the premier league during the whole 2013. Fernando Torres managed to find the back of the net in the first day of 2014. We hope this beginning continues with other important away games awaiting the blues in the 2nd half of the season.

Starting 11s: 

Southampton (4-2-3-1): Davis; Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw (Clyne h/t); Cork (Lambert 60), Schneiderlin; Rodriguez, Davis (Ward-Prowse 75), Lallana (c); Ramirez.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry (c), Cole; Ramires, Mikel; Schurrle (Willian 52), Mata (Oscar 52), Hazard (Essien 84); Torres.

Summary:

Chelsea started the new year in style as they brushed aside Southampton 3-0 away from home. All goals came in the 2nd half despite Jose Mourinho’s team dominating play and attacking in lots of counter attacks in the first half.

The game started with Southampton keeping possession in a way their manager Mauricio Pochettino wants them to play. That style of play was countered by the mastermind Jose Mourinho as he had instructed our midfielders including Torres upfront to press them high and prevent them from building from the back as they like to/

John Terry and Gary Cahill started in their 2nd successive games and the opposition strikers were silent all of after noon as they failed to test Petr Cech into some tough saves.

Many opportunities were missed in the first half many of them coming from Fernando Torres. He didn’t manage to get in the end of Ramires’ brilliant cross and missed in lots of chances he created for himself. The Spaniard’s positioning for long-balls and his individual dribbling were all superb but he was unlucky as he didn’t have players to assist to or go on and score.

2nd half brought some radical changes from Jose Mourinho in bid not to slip up in the title race after Man City and Arsenal had won their matches in the same day. Oscar and Willian came on for Schurrle and Mata, who was incredible  in his defensive efforts by marking Luke Shaw to perfection.

The substitutions made instant impact as both players were influential in the build-up for Fernando Torres’ opener. Oscar receiving the ball outside the box, managed to cross but the ball deflected from a defender and hit the far post. The rebound fell to Torres who directed his header to the back of the net to give us the lead. It was the Spaniard’s third league goal of the campaign, but more significantly one that gave us a crucial advantage in what was developing into an extremely tight encounter.

Then, moments later, Willian doubled the lead after receiving a pass yet again from Oscar who made huge impact since coming on. He turned from defender Fonte and sent a brilliant curler in the side of the net for the 2-0. Talk about super subs!!

The Blues were seeing plenty of the ball as we looked to close the game out comfortably, and as Ramires played the ball into the feet of Hazard, who seemingly had little on, the Belgian displayed great awareness to release Oscar with one clever flick, and as the Chelsea number 11 raced through on goal he showed great composure to pick his spot and fire the ball past Davis.

Southampton looked to pull a goal back by attacking in the closing stages but, they couldn’t manage to get the ball past our back shield consisting of two Englishmen in Cahill and John Terry. The game ended with a 3-0 scoreline for the Blues and puts us in 3rd place in EPL table one point behind 2nd placed Man City and 2 points behind leaders Arsenal.

Thanks for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014!!!! Follow me on twitter (@FahmiCFC) and KTBFFH!!!