Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea fell to back-to-back defeats away from home in the Premier League at the St Mary’s on Tuesday evening’s visit to Southampton.

Having been thumped 3-0 to Leeds United last time out on the road, things didn’t get much better against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side for the Blues.

First half goals from 18-year-old Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong after Raheem Sterling’s opener gave the Saints their first home win of the season after last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester United

Perfect Saints

After a rocky opening five Premier League games, Southampton find themselves in seventh place, though there are a host of matches to be played across the course of the week. 

Speaking post-match, Hasenhuttl was delighted with his side’s performance. 

He said: “We deserved to take something today. On Saturday, we played a good game and today we took what we deserved because we were fighting unbelievable, two times on the line they made a save and overall, it was what people want to see, a team fighting for everything, and the perfect performance.”

Against United, Southampton had 17 shots but were unable to find the back of the net.

One thing Hasenhuttl’s methods are centred around is the counter press and a proactive style of football.

He said: “We have this DNA, we want to do this against every opponent, and we never stop running, this is a way you can hurt big teams when you do it committed - it was not so clear after Saturday how fresh we were tonight, but we can show this.”

Much has been said about Chelsea’s need for a striker, and that certainly ties in with the way how the Austrian felt.

Hasenhuttl said: “Even when we were 1-0 down, I didn’t feel we were struggling. With this effort you deserve a lot.”

The former RB Leipzig manager has had issues of his own at the club, with reports coming out since the start of the season claiming many Southampton players had expected Hasenhuttl to be sacked in the summer, but the 55-year-old believes he is building something special.

“I said it from the first day that we have the feeling that we have a team that is young but there is a lot of empty space on the hard disk, and they can learn. They have fun working hard, they have fun running a lot and, when the moment comes, they have fun scoring goals,” said Hasenhuttl.

From Hasenhuttl’s back four and goalkeeper, the oldest of the five is right back Kyle Walker-Peters, who is just 25-years-old, but the Saints boss was very impressed with every member of his line-up on Tuesday.

He said: “We had a lot of changes in the team, a lot of young players, a very young back four and goalkeeper but they have shown they are learning very quickly. We are not scared, and it is enjoyable to work with because they take immediately what you want them to do.”

He continued: “We have won one time away at Chelsea since I was here, that was four years ago but at home, not for a while and it was time to take something.”

One player who starred in the hosts win was summer signing Lavia.

The 2004-born central midfielder signed from Manchester City, with the champions inserting a £40 million buy option on the Belgium international, and he showed exactly why against Chelsea.

Post-match, Hasenhuttl said: “It will not be the last [goal] coming here and showing up. This is our philosophy, and we are going [to continue].”

However, Hasenhuttl confirmed things weren’t all positive in Lavia’s performance.

He said: “The negative thing is he is maybe injured now for a few weeks, so not perfect.”

Though Lavia could be missed massively, the Saints do have midfielder’s Oriol Romeu, James Ward-Prowse and Ibrahima Diallo at their disposal for their fixtures against Wolves, Southampton and Aston Villa. 

Chelsea get the Blues

After having spent a hefty part of their summer budget on defenders, the source of where Chelsea’s goals will come from is still heavily unknown.

With Romelu Lukaku leaving on loan back to Inter Milan earlier in the summer, it looks as though Tuchel isn’t the biggest fan of youngster Armando Broja.

The 20-year-old Albanian was brought on as a substitute late on in place of Kai Havertz.

On the lack of goals, Tuchel said: “I think in the first 20 minutes we created half chances but struggled to score. That is also not brand new for us and that doesn’t necessarily have the consequence you can lose matches; you can win 1-0.

“We started well in all the games almost but obviously we are struggling with our focus and consistency in matches. We struggled to find answers and find the way back if things don’t go in our direction. Things did go in our direction today but then we struggled after the equaliser.”

The German was also unhappy with the manner in which his players were beaten.

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Tuchel has altered between a system involving four defenders and one involving five, reverting to a 4-3-3 for Tuesday’s clash.

Post-match he said: “I don’t think it takes a lot to beat us and this I don’t like. It is not enough to win away matches, it is not enough to play 20-25 minutes on the level we want. It is too easy to put us off balance, to beat us, to confuse us. It is too easy. It happened against Leeds. We need to understand why and find solutions. We lose concentration, we lose our plan and lose consistency, it is too easy to beat us.”

Next up for Chelsea is London rivals West Ham at Stamford Bridge – a fixture in which there is no hiding place for any player on either side. 

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