Chelsea’s visit to St. Mary’s Stadium will be Tuchel’s fourth match on the road, and seventh match in-charge of the West London outfit.
Having lost none of his previous encounters as the Chelsea manager, his formidable start will look to rival Maurizio Sarri’s record set back in 2018, when the Italian tactician went 12 matches without conceding a defeat.
The German’s impressive start has seen Chelsea emerge as top-four contenders after a dismal opening half of the season under Frank Lampard. His first outing against Wolves turned out to be a stalemate and it is the only instance when Chelsea have lost points, other than which they have won all four clashes – scoring seven and conceding just one.
With Kai Havertz and Thiago Silva eager to get back into the starting eleven, Atletico Madrid wait mid-week in a mouthwatering Round-of-16 encounter and both are likely to appear then for the Blues.
While Chelsea have won their last five away matches against the south coast club across all competitions, Southampton themselves come on the back on six winless matches – the longest such run in the club’s history, having conceded a remarkable 20 goals. (whoscored.com)
The full team line-up for Southampton vs Chelsea is below. (Kick-off at 12:30pm GMT)
