Southampton 1-1 Chelsea: Thomas Tuchel’s side fail to capitalise on possession as hosts end six-game Premier League losing run

Southampton and Chelsea shared the points in a 1-1 draw at St Mary’s where Takumi Minamino opened the scoring before Mason Mount equalised from the spot.

The Blues failed to create many chances despite dominating possession as the Saints showed a good defensive performance. 

The opening stages of the first half were dominated by Chelsea with the first chance being a cross to Marcos Alonso who took on the strike only and to send it wide of the post. They continued to dominate but struggled to create chances.

The home side shocked the visitors in the 34^th minute against the run of play when they took their first chance of the game. 

Nathan Redmond played a ball straight through the middle of Chelsea, into the feet of Minamino who drove into the box and dummied a shot to send the defender slide past before calmly finishing with the outside of his foot to give the Saints the lead. 

Chelsea almost saw themselves get straight back into the game with Alonso putting a free-kick right onto the head of Kurt Zouma who headed powerfully towards the near post bringing out a great save from Alex McCarthy to keep the score at 1-0. 

Early in the second-half Chelsea were awarded a penalty. Mount had the ball at his feet inside the box and went down after Danny Ings mistimed his challenge. Mount duly converted the penalty into the bottom right corner to level the scores.

Southampton got another chance against the run of play as Redmond found Jannick Vestergaard with a cross which rattled the crossbar leaving goalkeeper Edouard Mendy with no chance of saving it … had it been on target.

Chelsea failed to create many chances despite their dominant possession. In the 84^th minute the best chance of the second-half fell to Reece James at the back post with nobody around him, but he failed to trouble the goalkeeper as he sent his shot over the bar.

Southampton defended well for the remainder of the game with the only shots from Chelsea coming in from distance until the final whistle.

The draw means that Chelsea are three points from Manchester United in second place and only one point above West Ham in the fight for a Champion’s League place.

Southampton welcomed the much-needed point as it brought an end to their six-game run of losses in the Premier League and moves them four points off of the top-half of the table.

By Evan Clem