Chelsea 3 Southampton 3 – Werner’s brace in vain as Chelsea relinquish early lead

2020-21 English Premier League match report – Stamford Bridge – Saturday, October 17, 2020

Chelsea 3 Southampton 3

Frank Lampard’s men relinquished a comfortable 2-0 lead to allow visiting Southampton to finish 3-3 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Timo Werner showed why he is among the most sought-after strikers in the continent with a couple of superb opening goals.

The first came after he jinked past Saints center-back Jan Bednarek and drilled in to make it 1-0 in the 15th minute. The second was a header after a fine lob over goalkeeper Alex McCarthy in the 28th minute.

The visitors’ goal came against the run of play just 2 minutes before half time as Danny Ings rounded a hapless Kepa Arrizabalaga before finishing.

Some really poor work at the back allowed the Saints to equalize 12 minutes post the interval. In a chaotic melee inside the Chelsea box, another Kepa error from a weak back-pass from Kurt Zouma allowed Che Adams to score and draw level in the 57th.

But the Blues went into the lead only 2 minutes later as Werner was again found space, this time on the right of the box, and his square ball for compatriot Havertz was swept past McCarthy from close range for his first goal since his arrival at Chelsea.

The Ex-Bayer Leverkusen forward had a chance to add another one to his name but his header went wide. Adams drilled just wide at the other end and Ings’ snapshot forced a low save from Kepa.

Just when it looked certain that the hosts would collect three points, there was still drama left in the stoppage time.

A poorly attempted clearance from Kepa helped Theo Walcott to shoot, his attempt being glanced in with a header from Jannik Vestergaard two minutes into injury time.

For Chelsea New signing Ziyech was yet to make an appearance, while Lampard had no choice but to replace the injured keeper Edouard Mendy by the completely out-of-form Kepa.

Christensen came in for the injured Thiago Silva, Pulisic returned to play for the last 9 minutes for Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount was in for Tammy Abraham.

Meanwhile, Walcott, who was the club’s youngest first-team player at 16 years old, returned to Southampton from Everton, 14 years after leaving to join Arsenal.

The Stamford Bridge draw is the second one for the season for the Blues and leaves Chelsea in the 7th place with 8 points from 5 games while the Saints are on the 11th in the Football League Table with 7 points from equal number of games and look be heading southwards as the season progresses.

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