Chelsea’s Keeping Up. The Blues dominated Southampton without forcing Sunday (0-3) thanks in particular to a very good match of Ross Barkley, author of a goal and a decisive pass. The London squad remained undefeated and joined Liverpool and Manchester City in the lead.

The Big Eight without a spark but all in control for Chelsea. The Blues followed an eighth undefeated Premier League game with a Southampton who was too weak to be worrying (0-3). With this victory, they are up to Liverpool and Manchester City for a luxury trio of undefeated leaders.

From the start of the game, the Blues put their foot on the ball. A somewhat sterile domination, without any real clear opportunity, until the half hour of play. But it was at this moment that, thanks to an excellent recovery of Barkley, preferred to Kovacic, Hazard was able to trick McCarthy closely (0-1, 30′). The Belgian forward’s sixth Premier League goal didn’t make much difference to the game : Chelsea continued to master it, the Saints didn’t manage to get out of its thirty meters.

Barkley, Sarri’s good idea.

By moving to 4-2-3-1 in the second period at the expense of a five-man defence, Mark Hugues gave his team a new lease of life. But this reaction was short-lived and killed in the egg by Chelsea. On an axial but distant free-kick, Willian found Olivier Giroud. With a magnificent scissor, the French put the ball back in front of the goal. A ball that Barkley only had to push to score his first goal in the Blues (0-2, 57′). At the end of the game, Morata, who replaced Giroud for the last 20 minutes, made the bet even bigger (3-0, 90′).

Without being spectacular, the Blues were solid and efficient against a low 16th in the Premier League, thanks in particular to the very good performances of Barkley and Jorginho, the real hub of Maurizio Sarri’s team. A more difficult match for the French : if Giroud ended up being decisive with his pass on the second goal, Kanté struggled to really influence the game as a right relayer.

In any case, this victory allows the men of Sarri to join the controls of the Championship, on a par with Manchester City and Liverpool.