Saturday, 30 March 2013

Southampton Vs Chelsea Preview: Premier League Live Streaming, Team News, Predicted Line-Ups, Match Facts, Highlights and More

Rafa Benitez SackRafa Benitez takes his Blues side to St Mary's.



Check in to Southampton FC vs Chelsea

Preview

Rafael Benitez insists Chelsea can still claim second place in the Premier League ahead of a trip to Southampton on Saturday that marks the start of a testing run of fixtures for the Blues.

Benitez's third placed side will attempt to increase the pressure on Manchester City, who sit five points ahead in second spot, with victory over the relegation-threatened Saints at St Mary's.

That marks the first of six games in a 16-day period for Chelsea, with the FA Cup sixth round replay against Manchester United next up just 48 hours later.

The programme will test Benitez's squad to the limit but the Spaniard said: "It is better to have this problem than be at home watching it on the television.

"It is better to have this schedule because it means you are still competing.

"With a top side, the last month in the season is when you fight for trophies. We are still there and it is a positive.

"At this stage of the competition, you have to win games and then you can win trophies. It has to be now, in this period."

Chelsea moved one point ahead of Tottenham in the last round of fixtures before the international break, with Arsenal another four points adrift in fifth place.



The battle for a Champions League place is set to intensify in the coming weeks but while Benitez recognises the threat of the two north London clubs, he maintains his focus is fixed on City.

"I would like to see if we can reduce the gap or think like this, but I'm sure they will be concerned like we are concerned about Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton," Benitez said.

"In recent weeks we have been training very well and we were competing really well and the team was playing very good football.

"So if you can keep all these things and this momentum, I will not be worried about the other teams. I will be just watching Manchester City."

Chelsea's England defender Gary Cahill is struggling with the knee injury that forced him to withdraw from international duty, while Brazil midfielder Ramires has a groin problem.

Chelsea will face a Southampton side lifted by victory over Liverpool last time out, only their second victory since Mauricio Pochettino replaced Nigel Adkins as manager.

The other win came against Manchester City but Pochettino denies his side have been guilty of failing to match those standards against their relegation rivals.

"If you look at the victories we got against Manchester City and Liverpool it might look like we raise our game against those games," he said.

"But I don't think that is the case because we played well against Wigan and Norwich, but perhaps weren't lucky enough to get the three points in those games.

"We had a very good result against Liverpool and when you get a result like that you want to carry on playing games trying to get more results like that."

Southampton lost successive games after beating City, and midfielder Jack Cork admits the four-point cushion to the relegation places could begin to look less secure if they suffer a similar slip this time.

"We had such a good result against Manchester City and then QPR came here and we lost. That's keeping us on our toes," Cork said.

"We're in a great situation at the minute, but we need to make sure we don't think anything is done just yet.

"We have to make sure we try to win as many games as we can."

Venue St Mary's, Saturday 3pm

Tickets Here

Referee M Atkinson

This season's matches 21 Y81, R1, 3.90 cards per game

SouChe

Southampton

Subs from K Davis, Richardson, Forren, Ward-Prowse, Chaplow, S Davis, do Prado, Puncheon, Mayuka

Doubtful Lallana, Shaw, Hooiveld

Injured Fox (hip, unknown)

Suspended none

Form guide WDLLWD

Disciplinary record Y34 R0

Leading scorer Lambert 13

Chelsea

Subs from Turnbull, Hilario, Ivanovic, Ferreira, Cole, Benayoun, Hazard, Marin, Ake, Ba

Injured Cahill (knee, Monday), Ramires (achilles, Monday), Romeu (knee, season)

Suspended None

Form guide WWLWLD

Disciplinary record Y40 R2

Leading scorer Ba 15 (13 for Newcastle)

STAT-ATTACK

Head-to-head

Southampton lost 5-1 at home to Chelsea in the FA Cup third round in January. Eleven days later they fought back from 2-0 down to earn a point at Stamford Bridge, but it wasn't enough to spare Nigel Adkins the sack.

Chelsea are unbeaten in their last seven league meetings with Southampton (W4, D3) since a 4-2 home defeat on New Year's Day 2002.

The Saints last won this fixture at home in November 2000, when James Beattie scored the winner at The Dell with a 25-yard free-kick in stoppage time.

Southampton

They have earned 14 points from 11 games in 2013 (W3, D5, L3) and won two of their eight games under Mauricio Pochettino.

However, they have surrendered a league-high 27 points from winning positions this season.

The Saints have scored an unrivalled five own goals in the Premier League this season.

Their tally of 42 Premier League goals this season is bettered only by the current top seven.

Rickie Lambert is in line for his 500th career league appearance. He is the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League this season with 13 goals, one ahead of Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney.

Chelsea

Chelsea have won successive league matches - and kept consecutive clean sheets - for the first time in 2013.

They have only earned one point from their last three away matches.

The Blues have opened the scoring in 19 league matches this season, more than any other team.

Frank Lampard has scored 200 goals for Chelsea, two behind Bobby Tambling's club record tally. He has scored four goals in his last four league matches against Southampton.

Juan Mata is the first player to both score and assist 10 or more goals in the Premier League this season.

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Southampton vs Chelsea Live Streaming


~CaughtOffside » Chelsea FC~

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