Next Sunday, 28th of December 2014, the league leaders Chelsea will travel south to measure forces with the surprising Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium for round 19 of the English Premier League, on a match that will certainly be an excellent test for José Mourinho’s boys, who have only been defeated once so far this season and that currently have the best attacking and defensive effectiveness of the competition.

Chelsea put up an almost vintage performance against West Ham on Boxing Day and, unsurprisingly, they granted the three points at the expenses of a Hammers’ team that was nothing but a shadow of what they have already shown this season. The Blues had 66% of ball possession, made 28 goal attempts against some miserable and modest six efforts by their opponents. It was, beyond any doubts, an excellent display of power by José Mourinho’s side, on a match that could have ended in a true goal galore.

The team’s captain, John Terry, opened the score on the first-half and the newcomer Diego Costa signed the second of the day on the 62th minute after an assist by the Belgian wonderboy Eden Hazard, who is on a remarkable moment of form. The match, that was anticipated as potentially complicated for the Blues, ended up by being a walk in the park for the current league leaders and allowed them to keep their closest contenders, Manchester City and Manchester United, at bay.

Next weekend’s match at St. Mary’s Stadium will certainly bring Chelsea several more difficulties than the one against the Hammers, especially if we have in mind the overall quality of their opponents, Southampton, who are, beyond any doubts, one of the best teams of the competition this season.

As for the Saints, they seem to be fully recovered from that fairly complicated period that hit the team earlier this month, as they have managed to win their last two matches. Last Friday, Southampton visited Selhurst Park and clinched some important three points against Crystal Palace by winning the match 3-1 with goals by Mane, Bertrand and Alderweireld.

Ronald Koeman’s work at the helm of the Saints’ deserves all the credit, especially after the amount of important players that left the club last Summer, which forced the Dutch manager to create something new from scratch while finding the players to put his ideas into practice in a very short period of time.

Although the league leaders Chelsea might enjoy from a slight favouritism for the next Sunday’s clash, they will certainly need to dig very deep in order to grant the three points against a well organized opponent such as Southampton.

Southampton

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

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Chelsea

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

Southampton (4-3-3) - Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Aldewereld - Bertrand - Wanyama - Schneiderlin - Ward-Prowse - Tadic - Mane - Pelle

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

Prediction

Southampton 1 Chelsea 1