Chelsea beat Southampton to return to the top of Premier League table

It was a nervy afternoon for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge against a Southampton side that are yet to win in the Premier League this season, but persistence and luck, after few unlucky moments played to the Blues advantage to secure a 3-1 win that helped them back to winning ways after two defeats from their previous games, it also helped them back to the top of the table.

How did it go down at Stamford Bridge?

Thomas Tuchel rotated his squad heavily, with starts for Trevoh Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Timo Werner. Chelsea took an early lead through youngster Trevoh Chalobah, who repaid Tuchel's faith in him to start and scored his second Premier League goal this season. Chelsea thought they had extended their lead twice through strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner but both goals were disallowed, one due to offside and the second a foul in the buildup. The first half ended 1-0.

Southampton came out the better team in the second half and rightfully took the lead from the spot after Ben Chilwell who started his first game of the season fouled former Chelsea player Tino Livramento. Captain James Ward-Prowse converted the spot kick but was redcarded later on in the match, which gave the Blues the advantage and they scored two quick goals to win the match 3-1.

Timo Werner's unlucky record for Chelsea

German striker Timo Werner first had a goal ruled out in the closing minutes of the first half after captain Cesar Azpilicueta had committed a foul in the buildup. It was the 16th in his Chelsea career that he had a decision against him from the video assistant referee, the most of any player. Manager Thomas Tuchel was happy he scored but said he has to work more in some areas. "In the end he was where he needed to be. When you have a ball from Ross, the cross from Azpi, you need to be there as a striker. Whenever he scores, there always seems to be a VAR decision ready to take away from him. I remember against Liverpool, one that was super close. There are a lot of things for him to improve but we are happy and relieved he scored in the late minutes of this game. It was a very important goal for us."

What did Thomas Tuchel say about the match?

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel had frustrating moments on the touchline and received a yellow card for dissent and was lucky not to have received his marching orders. After the game he said his team deserves to win; "It was absolutely a deserved victory. We played a good match of football, an entertaining football match because Southampton played strong. But we did everything today, in my opinion, to deserve the win. We got late goals, we could've scored earlier, we could have finished the game in the first half but it's like this. We deserved to win."