Chelsea vs Southampton Match Preview

The traditional Boxing Day is here, with plenty of games for the EnglishPremier League. Chelsea face Southampton and they will try to get a 2nd consecutive win in the league, a winning streak where they are trying to accomplish since November.

The 'Blues' have only won two out of their last six games, but the recent 0-2 away win over Tottenham has been very encouraging for Frank Lampard's side. M.Mount showed many in this one, even Chelsea fans strongly doubted him from, doing credit to his manager who trusted him since the beginning of the season. It was a constant threat to the Spurs' defense, making an excellent trio with Willian and T. Abraham. Reasonably he will be in the starting eleven today, replacing suspended M. Kovacic, who is unavailable for the first time this season, having played in all 18 previous games. Striker O. Giroud remains doubtful.

Southampton returned to victories last weekend, with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa that helped Ralph Hasenhuttl's team get out of the relegation zone, sinking Aston Villa into it. The scope for improvement is still significant for the Saints, and what they are hoping to find the Chelsea that we show against West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth. D. Ings (photo) scored in his team's 5 most recent games raching a total of 11 goals this season, pushing Southampton out of the danger zone, something that was rather unexpected a month ago. K. Danso is sick and loses the game, while M. Djenepo is doubtful. O. Romeu returned last weekend and could be a key player tonight against his old team.

Chelsea got a rather unexpected victory over Tottenham last weekend. However, the hardest thing for Chelsea is to maintain this momentum, something that they were not been able to do lately, struggling against lower-placed teams of the table. This gives Southampton great prospects, who after leaving the danger zone behind them, are now looking to reach even higher in the table. Although Chelsea have dominated in their h2h matches and has not lost a single one since 2015, I will go with Southampton in this one. The odds for the away are 'crazy' at 8.75, too high to be ignored from this writer.