Chelsea face Southampton tonight, a team they’ve had a lot of success against in recent years.
On paper this looked like a Saints team destined to struggle this season, and many tipped them to go down.
But so far they’ve beaten Leicester, run Man U close and drawn with a Leeds side that blew Chelsea away.
They still look likely to finish in the bottom half, but they haven’t been the whipping boys everyone expected.
One key reason for that has been the impressive adaptation of 20 year old Armel Bella-Kotchap, the centre back signed by Southampton this summer.
He’s looked great for a rookie so far, but Chelsea will still consider his inexperience a weak point. Kai Havertz has started up top with Mason Mount and Raheem Sterling in every game so far, but expect that to be tweaked today as Thomas Tuchel starts his rotations for the season.
Whoever comes in will surely be targeting the inexperienced German as Chelsea look to score a couple tonight.
