Southampton earned a well-deserved 2-1 victory after a spectacular first-half comeback to hand Chelsea its second loss of the campaign.
Thomas Tuchel’s side are now five points behind leaders Arsenal having taken only seven points from their first five matches despite their evening on the south coast starting perfectly when Raheem Sterling netted his third goal of the season from close range.
But courageous Southampton rallied back through gifted youngster Romeo Lavia, who blasted home from the area’s edge to energize a quiet St Mary’s.
Adam Armstrong’s game-winning goal in first-half extra time put Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints ahead of the Blues, and they never looked back after that.
What Did Thomas Tuchel Say?
Speaking after the game, Tuchel said: “We are not tough enough to win these matches away. It was the same story like in Leeds, there we thought the problem was we didn’t score in the first 25 minutes, and then they pushed us off-balance in two minutes with two goals and we could not find any answers.
Tuchel keeps it real š pic.twitter.com/PF0vuQ9Dmw
ā ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 30, 2022
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“Today we scored so everything was okay but one set piece again, one sloppy defending again, we were off-balance and we did not react to it.
“We were lucky not to concede a third goal at the beginning of the second half. We were not tough enough as a team to react or push it over the line for us.
“Soft defending. What stops that is pure mentality, stop it with defending mentality. There is no superiority for the opponent, there is no need to give shots away, just toughen up as a team and show a different mentality.
“I don’t like to talk about it normally because you cannot prove it with data or tactical position but it is like this. Both goals are cheap, soft goals and should not happen if you expect to win a match in the evening at an away stadium.”
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