Chelsea v Southampton (19:45 BST)

When Chelsea lost their last Premier League game at Manchester United - which saw the lead at the top reduced to just four points from Spurs - there were suggestions that the nerves were starting to show on Antonio Conte's side.

The FA Cup semi-final win over Spurs at Wembley on Saturday answered those questions and provided a strong statement of intent.

And Chelsea can now turn the tables and put Spurs under pressure with victory over Southampton at Stamford Bridge tonight. It would give them a seven-point advantage ahead of Spurs' tough visit to in-form Crystal Palace tomorrow night.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Gary Cahill all return to the starting line-up. Hazard and Costa came on as substitutes in the 4-2 FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham. Defender Cahill missed the tie because of gastroenteritis.

Southampton make two changes from the side that lost 3-0 at home to Manchester City. Oriol Romeu returns after a two-game suspension and fellow midfielder Sofiane Boufal in the starting XI. Nathan Redmond and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg make way.

Chelsea XI: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso, Fabregas, Hazard, Costa.

Subs: Begovic, Ake, Pedro, Willian, Batshuayi, Terry, Chalobah.

Southampton XI: Forster, Cedric, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Davis, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Boufal, Gabbiadini.

Subs: Clasie, Long, Rodriguez, Caceres, Redmond, Hojbjerg, Hassen.

Redmond on the bench

Fuck off. He would have been perfect for hitting them on the break.

Might as well bench Costa and play false nine

I was hoping Fabregas would start. He should be able to open up the Southampton defense. Chelsea need to keep a clean sheet

>>4
It'll be interesting to see if Conte's answer to teams adapting to the 343 is moving to a 352 that (should) play a lot less wide.

chelsea is for gays and pedos

nothing better than a glass of midweek football to fill the void in my soul at least for a while

>>7
Multiple glasses of something strong are even better.

>>5
I hope so. Harsh to not see Willian or Pedro. Hopefully Willian is being saved for Everton

3-5-2

Not sure how to feel about this desu. It didn't seem as effective as the 3-4-3 the times I saw them playing it. Fabregas starting is good, though.

Kinda shit from Conte to not play Willian and Ake after how good they were against Spurs desu.

The FA Cup is not canon

i think it's okay to rest players who just played a couple of days ago and haven't gone the full 90' in a while
ake and willian should start over the weekend, though
(even though cont won't start ake)

Need a win tonight to smash Spurs once for all, if Chelsea slips they might get confidence back.

At least I'll have the next 2 hours not to worry about how shit life is.

what does costa do in chelsea

fucking costa

BAMFORD WHEN

Why won't Puel play hojbjerg? Southampton was supposed to be the stepping stone for him to become great! Denmark's future rely on him since all other CMs are shit.
IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

>>17
Because he's a tidy player, very technical, good decisions most of the time and a good passer but overall still pretty mediocre, hides from the game, tends to pass sideways too much and isn't the best tackler, creator or controller.

in short, so'ton has better options

muh Kante doesn't get booked for obvious yellow card offence because he's le tackle man

Fuck off.

Quality finish

THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD THIRD BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD

soton defending

fucking lmao

Southampton not learning from Spurs

Lol lets just let hazzar run around unmarked

another handball

Fucking hell refs are so shit

Have Chelsea ever worn blue socks? Or always white?

Has >le 3rd best in the world even scored a champions league knockout goal?

lads can't wait for chelsea to be in the CL next year

I hope Hazard can carry this form into the CL

I hate teams like Southampton at this stage of the season. They reach 40 points and stop giving a fuck completely.

Quite funny seeing Virgin Media being advertised by Sky

Kante in charge of passing
this limited little fuck is the PFA player of the year

Might as well give it to Scott Parker again.

Is Kante unironically Chelsea's most important player?

Favourite Chelsea chant?

does anyone who is unable to watch this but unironically wants to watch this need a stream?

Romeu is apparently a Man Utd target this summer. What do yah think?

Chelsea will replace Cahill right? He's a glaring weak link.

Costa is playing Barcelonesque

Chelshit BTFO

Absolutely embarrassing, Chelsea fans should be ASHAMED

Gabbi and Romeu

not even mad

Wow Gabbiandini is good

Romeu's first of the season, against his former club

POTTERY

Awful defending
They better not fuck up again

Turn the game on 1-0 Chelsea
go for a shit
come back
1-1

t-this will not SLIP

Boufal is just awful. Get him off NOW

Redmond on now! He'd wreck these fucks.

what the fuck is chelsea doing

Chelsea hasn't kept a clean sheet in the league since January 22nd (11 games in a row)

Boufal is one of the most talented players in the league.

If you disagree you don't know anything about football.

>>47
the same thing they ve been doing for a while actually. still grinding out results but kinda worrying

I don't understand why Chelsea always give up so many fouls when they have the set piece.

Never really liked chelski.

Only good guys in the prem are Liverpool and Tottenham

sorry lads, had to pick little sister up from the mosque

will webm goals when they show them next

le nigerian nigger run at le fullbacks boi

how 1 dimensional. if anyone called this nigger a prospect do us all a favor and kill yourself.

FINALLY

THAT LITTLE FRAUD SHOULD BE OFF ALREADY

muh tackling

who was at fault for the southampton goal lads?

this corner defending

should be 2-1

Maybe you should have been more selfish Eden :^)

David Luiz was a great re-buy

it's another Chelshit win undeservedly thread

Tires of this lads.

What did the ref say to Cesc?

I knew that monkey faced prick would score since he's on a goal drought

it's a Costa scores yet again when Chelsea is already leading episode

that's not why he was brought in

Chelsea have more posession, goals, shots on target, passes and tackles.

Please explain how S'ton are playing better when they are down 1-3?

I'm seriously worried Costa is going to have a change of mind and stay another season.

The ref doesn't make it more obvious that he's in Chelshit's pocket.

74 minutes
only 68 posts

the city of chelsea

>>69
Single-thread games are comfy lad. You should see the Chelsea threads in UCL group stages. They hardly reach 50 posts.

what a faggot fat bald headed nigger ref.

how can refs still be overweight?

embarrassing

>>69
No team makes multiple match threads if there aren't neutruels laughing at them.

I have to ask a question.

The standard of discourse on facebook and twitter is often poor among the comments, but why is the standard of conversation on YouTube comments so much disproportionately worse than anywhere else?

Another Chelsea victory thanks to based Diego who participated in all 3 goals.

Have you thanked Le Neanderthal Man today?

>>73
Pseudo-anonymity allows people to say whatever the fuck they want. In addition, YouTube is very accessible to literal children.

>>73
i dont find much of a difference between facebook and youtube comments 2bh

twitter is marginally better
maybe there are less kids there

Chelsea are so fucking boring to watch

Why is terry taking off his jacket? Is he feeling too warm?

So mathematically, Chelsea can earliest win the league against Middlesbrough?

>>79
Maximum points Spurs can get: 89
Chelsea need 12 points in 5 games. 4 wins, meaning they can win the title v Watford at home if Chelsea and Spurs keep winning their remaining games.

And now Costa has been involved in all 4 goals.

COSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

World class

So undeserved...

That was beautiful

Holy fuck that movement

Where are the mongs who were saying "have you ever seen Costa try to play a 1-2?" last week?

EAT SHIT

Costa > your favorite twink/pacebabby/overrated shit striker

you'd think southampton would learn a thing or two from uniteds win and man mark hazard out the game

Sell captain CB
Best CB gets injured for the rest of the season
Sign a replacement and don't play him

Please Puel, give Caceres some game time because the Yoshida-Stephens partnership is conceding way too fucking many

>>86
Calm down bro, it was just a tap in.

Remember when Chelsea conceded 2 goals in 12 games?

These ex-Chelshit players must have been treated badly with this vendetta.

Can based Sam make sure we stay 7 points clear?

Diego da Silva Costa

How do we fix this piece of shit?

What the FUCK went wrong?

Costa to China when?

Friendly reminder that Costa has scored less goals (4) in 2017 than Willian (4), Marcos Alonso (4), Hazard (6), Pedro (7) and Fibreglass (5), and will probably fail to score against Middlesbrough.

>>93
His mind is already in China