Chelsea face Southampton in the Premier League at St. Mary’s Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Thomas Tuchel’s side head into their fifth league fixture of the season against a Ralph Hasenhuttl team who were narrowly beaten at the weekend by Manchester United.
Bruno Fernandes’ second half goal was enough to inflict a second defeat of the season on the Saints.
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For Chelsea, they overcame having 10-men against Leicester City to win 2-1 at Stamford Bridge thanks to a Raheem Sterling brace.
"Performance wise we still have to improve,” reflected Tuchel after their first league home win of the season.
“It's now hard to analyse. 20/25 minutes was totally okay. We can be more fluid. It was okay. We were in charge. From there, hard to analyse. From playing as a team, defending together was a boost.
"After a loss in Leeds it was very difficult to come back in these circumstances. I'm happy that we did."
Chelsea will be without Conor Gallagher (suspension) and N’Golo Kante (hamstring) for the trip to the south coast in midweek, with Tuchel expecting a high intensity game which will be physically demanding.
He said: “I had the chance to watch the game today (Saturday) of Southampton live because they played before us, and our meetings were all done, so I saw a very strong Southampton side.
“They had a huge turnaround in Leicester to win the game. You could see they gained a lot of confidence from it. Then they conceded, but they had a lot of touches in the box, they had a lot of shots against Manchester United. They were very mobile upfront.
“What you can always expect in Southampton is a physical game, a running game, a high intensity game. This is what it is. We need to recover good, we need to be well prepared to have the chance to repeat what we did last season.”
When is the match?
It will take place on Tuesday 30th August at 7.45pm (UK) time.
Where is the match?
The Premier League match will be held at St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton.
How can I watch the match?
The fixture will be available to watch live on BT Sport in the United Kingdom.
For those in the United States, the game can be watched on Peacock Premium.
Topics: Southampton, Chelsea, Premier League, Football
Matthew Debono