CHELSEA AT ST MARY'S ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

Can Saints start 2014 with a good result?

Not feeling very optimistic. Can see Saints doing a lot of huffing and puffing............and losing by one or two goals. Hoping I am wrong on this.

well you were not wrong Mike, looked good for about an hour, Chelsea then changed it with 2 subs and we made a couple of poor subs, took cork off when at this stage even though he had been booked and was fired up rather that than the poor tackling of Ramerez. Will provide match report tomorrow but players looked tired. no Osvaldo again even on the bench, is he even in the country? Ramerez was okay first half but poor second half a lightweight and at end no clapping the fans just swap shirt with Essian then walk off, as far as I am concerned he can walk straight onto a plane back to Italy

Disappointing, I thought Saints lost their will after going behind.   And did Rodriguez do anything worthwhile???

Well to be fair Rodrigues looked pretty tired and playing him as the lone striker might have worked if Ramerez had ever got close to him but never happened.

Defensively we were dodgy at the start with Lovren unusually making a couple of errors which gave Chelsea opportunities. Twice Kelvin was quick off his line to prevent goals, and certainly would have been a different start with Gazziniga in goal. Eventually settled down and knocked the ball well in midfield and Ramerez showed a few good touches but still goes to ground to easily. Lovren and Fonte had a clash of heads from a corner but that seemed to give us the time to re group and looked more settled, then the Chelsea full back holds his back and despite the game going on the Chelsea physios come on the pitch attend him and Atkinson stops the game. a typical example of another very weak official. The Chelsea player was in his own half, ball no where near him, the ref had not signalled them to come on so he should have played on and booked their physios, if you can. He then walked off came back on inside 1 minute and was fine. Atkinson was poor all game, Chelsea have a hard streak in them, Mourinhio effect and were leaving their foot in long after the ball had gone yet Atkinson let them all go, Torres in particular.

Saints best chance of a goal came with a build up on the left and Ramerez fed Lallana who took the ball away from the defender but Chelsea got 3 players back to block, Resulting corner came to nothing but a couple of crosses were perfect for Lambert, except he was on the bench! Lallana had another shot blocked while Chelsea had opportunities but either Kelvin was there or a defender blocked. An even first half which had been quite open and second half started the same though Shaw did not come out with Cline going to left back. That probably turned out to be the wrong decision as the first 2 Chelsea goals came down the right side. Would have been better for Cline to go RB and Chambers to go left back as he did against spurs. Chambers had a poor game especially second half and was unable to make his tackles stick and got sucked in by Hazard and Oscar.

Goal was a real sucker blow, plenty of chances to clear the ball yet allowed to get a cross in which deflected off Chambers which left davis stranded ball came back of post and Torres got the rebound though he looked off side from our position but no way we will ever get the benefit of doubt when playing the top sides, the time has past when we should be using foreign referees who would not be as pally or scared of the top sides.

After that we pretty much gave up. Lambert came on and made some decent runs to the back post but afraid our midfield simply didn't see him, ward prowse came on but looked ineffective and how ramerez stayed on the pitch as was non existent second half though right at the end had a decent shot which went wide.

Squad needs some additions despite what Pochintino may say in the press, for us to try and be in top 8 think we need to offload ramerez and Osvaldo and bring in players who want to be here. Cannot wait for Wanyama to come back as every game shows how much we have missed him in his role protecting the back 4.

Davis 7 Decent game, came out well and no chance with goals
Shaw 6 inability to play 4 games in a row now a worry
Lovren 6 dodgy start but got better
Fonte 7 our best defender today
Chambers 5 poor game and probably in need of a rest
Davis 6 hard working as ever
Lallana 7 not as good as previosu games but most dangerous player
Cork 7 great battling effort and while he had been booekd we missed his energy when taking off
Ramerez 6 decent first half without being great but poor second half
Schneiderlin 5 had a poor game for once
Rodrigues 5 really did look knackered and that was at the start! Another in need of a rest.

Lambert 6 didn't get the service but when he did in the air won the ball
Ward Prowse 5 ineffective
Cline 6 good to see back though he was hampered being on the left side as struggled to cross, still won us a few corners