Chelsea Vs Southampton Prediction: Signal The Blues Awakening At Stamford Bridge

Enzo Fernandez, hopes to bring victory to Chelsea at home (photo: x @ChelseaFC)

JAKARTA Chelsea will try to end their negative trend when they host Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night, February 25, or Wednesday morning WIB, in the Premier League continued.

Both teams are experiencing a difficult period, with Chelsea swallowing three consecutive defeats in all competitions, while Southampton are further slumped at the bottom of the standings after being crushed by Brighton & Hove Albion with a score of 4-0.

The Blues are having a difficult time under Enzo Maresca's tutelage. After a 1-2 defeat to Aston Villa, they are now far behind the top four competitions. Filip Jorgensen, who is trusted to fill the main goalkeeper's position, made a fatal blunder which forced Chelsea to go home empty-handed from Villa Park.

Chelsea are currently in a bad trend with seven away games without a win. However, Stamford Bridge is the only place they can expect more. From the last four home games, they won three times and always scored at least two goals in every win.

Maresca admits defeat to Villa was the "heavyest" of her career at Chelsea so far. However, against Southampton, which has almost certainly been relegated, this is a golden opportunity for the Blues to return to winning ways.

For Southampton, this season seems to have ended sooner. They only collect nine points from 26 games and are still far behind the safe zone. In fact, Ivan Juric's side have the potential to set a record as a team with the lowest points in Premier League history, threatening Derby County's poor record of only 11 points in the 2007/08 season.

Southampton came to this game with a record of eight consecutive defeats at home, something that has only happened three times in Premier League history. However, they can slightly expect from their away performance, as their only win of their last 16 matches comes against Ipswich Town.

At the last meeting at Stamford Bridge, Southampton won 1-0 over Chelsea in February 2023. However, without the presence of James Ward-Prowse who became the determinant of the match, they had to accept the fact that Chelsea were massacred 5-1 by Chelsea in the previous meeting at St Mary's last December.

In this match, Chelsea had to lose Trevoh Chalobah who suffered a back injury against Aston Villa. In addition, several key players are also still in the treatment room, including Omari Kellyman, Noni Madueke, Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Nicolas Jackson, Romeo Lavia, and Marc Guiu.

Team captain Reece James has just finished a full match against Villa, but Maresca could have chosen to rest him to avoid the risk of injury.

Filip Jorgensen, who made a blunder in the last match, is not necessarily trusted again as the main goalkeeper, but Maresca is also reluctant to provide certainty about possible changes in the position of goalkeeper.

Southampton also experienced a crisis on the defense after Jan Bednarek suffered an injury to Brighton's defeat. If Taylor Harwood-Bellis has not recovered, then the back line of The Saints will be more fragile. Jack Stephens is also not fit enough to return to play.

On the front lines, Ivan Juric still relies on the duo of Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana to try to exploit Chelsea's weaknesses.

Chelsea are predicted to dominate the game, considering Southampton are in a slump. With The Saints' poor record in their away and fragile defense, Chelsea have a great chance of scoring a convincing win at home.

Estimated Lineup Of Players

Chelsea:Jorgensen; Gusto, Adarbioyo, Colwill, Cucurella; Dewsbury-Hall, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Sancho; C.

Southampton: Ramsdale; Aribo, Bella-Kotchap, Bree; Sugawara, Gronbaek, Smallbone, Walker-Peters; Fernandes; Onuachu, Sulemana.

Score prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Southampton