London (AFP)
Chelsea suffered their second loss this season in the English Premier League, by falling to its host Southampton 2-1 at the opening of the fifth stage.
This is the second defeat for German coach Thomas Tuchel’s team, after losing 3-0 to Leeds United two stages before, before returning to the winning streak at the expense of Leicester City last week “2-1”.
Chelsea’s balance froze at 7 points in eighth place, with a goal difference from Southampton, who won their second victory.
After the loss, Tuchel said: We started well, we were present, and then the difficulties began. There was no continuity, we scored a goal, but after that I can’t find the answers to what happened.
The London club had advanced through Raheem Sterling, after a wrong distraction from the defense of Mason Mount’s pass, so the player received it from Manchester City this summer and scored from close range his third goal in the league this season.
Chelsea then missed many opportunities, a scene that was repeated a lot in the last two seasons, with the search for a deadly striker continuing after the failure of the Belgian Romelu Lukaku, who returned to Inter on loan, and the return of German Timo Werner to Leipzig.
The “Saints” team equalized with a wonderful goal by Belgium’s Romeo Lafia, who fired a missile at the bird from the outskirts of the area to the left of Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The second goal for the hosts came before the break with a cross pass from Frenchman Romain Perot to Adam Armstrong, who is in front of the goal, in the absence of defensive oversight, which he followed into the net.
Moroccan Hakim Ziyech participated for the first time with the “Blues” this season.
In the other most prominent results, Fulham won 2-1 at home to Brighton, and Crystal Palace drew 1-1 at home with Brentford, while Everton continues to search for a first victory after drawing the same result with its host Leeds United.