Next Sunday, 15th of March 2015, a somehow fragilized Chelsea will entertain a recently inconsistent Southampton at Stamford Bridge for round 29 of the English Premier League. The Blues need to return to wins immediately in order to erase from their minds the unexpected elimination from the UEFA Champions League last Wednesday night, but in order to achieve such thing, they will need to overcome a Southampton side that has, so many times, this season proved to be one of the best teams of the Premier League.

After the 1-1 draw at Parc des Princes almost one month ago, no one would certainly have expected to witness Chelsea being kicked out of the most important football’s tournament of the Old Continent. The Blues sucumbed at the hands of a mighty Paris SG on extra-time by conceding a 2-2 draw that, on aggregate, put an abrupt end to their career at the Champions League this season. When Cahill opened the score for Chelsea on 81st minute of the match, no one would have certainly expected that a ten-men PSG would be able to still get back in the game, but the truth is that they did, when the former Blues’ defender, David Luiz, headed a scorcher into Courtois’ net.

This major upset for Chelsea could very well have a negative impact in the team’s so far excellent campaign the English Premier League. The next weekend’s clash against Southampton will most certainly be far from easy and José Mourinho’s Blues need to be at their best, both emotionally and physically, to overcome a compact and wisely organized team such as the Saints. For that particular clash, the Portuguese manager, who was severely criticized after last Wednesday’s setback, is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the services of Nemanja Matic and Obi Mikel, both currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Southampton, after last February’s turmoil, the Saints are now trying to get back on track and their important home win against Crystal Palace early this month have certainly contributed for that. Southampton are definitely one of the most interesting teams of the English Premier League this season but, for some reason, their initial vitality seems to be slowly fading away; nevertheless, it is fair to say that they have what is needed to cause a major upset to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next Sunday.

Chelsea

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LWWDD

Southampton

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WLLDW

Possible Line-ups

Chelsea (4-3-3) – Courtois - Ivanovic - Terry - Cahill - Filipe Luis - Ramires - Fàbregas - Óscar - Hazard - Willian - Diego Costa

Southampton (4-3-3) - Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Bertrand - Wanyama - Schneiderlin - Djuricic - Tadic - Mané - Pelle

Prediction

Chelsea 1 Southampton 0