Antonio Conte‘s men are on the verge of missing out on a Champions League spot, while their opponents are struggling in the relegation zone of the Premier League table.
Here we take a look at some interesting match facts and stats ahead of what is an important fixture for both teams, for different reasons.
– Saints have only won one of their nine Premier League games against Chelsea at St Mary’s Stadium (D2 L6), winning 2-1 in March 2013 thanks to goals from Jay Rodriguez and Rickie Lambert.
– Only Manchester United (10) have won more away games at St Mary’s Stadium in all competitions than Chelsea have (7).
– The Blues have won their last four league games against Southampton – they’ve never won five in a row against them.
– Since the start of 2016/17, Southampton have failed to win any of their 22 Premier League matches against sides starting the day in the top six (D8 L14).
– Chelsea have won only one of their last four Premier League games in which they’ve scored first (D1 L2) – prior to this, they’d won 22 games consecutively when scoring first.
Mark Hughes giving instructions to his team.
– Similarly, Southampton have now failed to win any of their last six Premier League games when scoring first (D4 L2), losing last time out away at Arsenal despite taking the lead.
– Mark Hughes has lost his last four games against Chelsea as a manager (all with Stoke), with his sides conceding 15 goals in that run.
– However, Hughes could become the third manager to beat Chelsea in the Premier League with four different clubs (after Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce), having previously beaten them with Blackburn, Man City and Stoke.
– Cesar Azpilicueta and Alvaro Morata have now combined for seven Premier League goals this season – in only one previous season have two Chelsea players combined for more (Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba in 2005-06, 8).
– Charlie Austin has scored four goals in his last four Premier League appearances at St Mary’s, though he’s not played there since December.
Statistics provided by Opta
