Saints got a lesson in finishing as Chelsea eventually cruised to victory as Saints run of poor form continues and starts to become worrying.

Recent results are starting to ask one big question and that is " Has our style of play been found out ?"

Earlier in the season our high tempo pressing game earned us much plaudits and caught some teams on the hop, but now most games tend to follow a familiar pattern, we enjoy the lions share of possession, the opposition sit back and watch us pass it around on the half way line, then they strike.

The fixture against Chelsea was no different to the last month or so in that we had 54% of the ball and we had 12 attempts on goal but with only 2 on target and the result was the same as it has been in 6 of the last 9 games, study the stats from all of those games and a familiar pattern starts to emerge and its not encouraging.

Of course meeting an in form Chjelsea side as they start to get into gear isnt what you want as you seek to start to get your own act into gear, but we beat them last year so we should have been capable this.

But perhaps the most worrying aspect of this defeat was that some of our key players did not look at their best and appeared jaded, Lovren, Shaw & Schneiderlin in particular did not look the players they were a month or so ago, in Shaw's case he didnt re appear after the break and it could be he was affected by injury, however it wasnt just that, people tend to forget how young he is, players of that age need to be taken out of the firing line every now and then and Shaw hasnt had that chance, it is perhaps no co incidence that he seems to pick up niggling injuries on a regular basis.

Saints tried hard against the Blues and for periods in the first half it looked like they might take the lead, certainly at half time the home side were good for the 0-0 score line and their supporters had high hopes for the second.

But astute substitutions change matches, Chelsea made two shortly after the break and within 7 minutes of those changes were ahead, ironically Saints were about to make a change of their own as Chelsea took the lead with surprisingly Jack Cork being taken off despite being in my opinion (and that of the player ratings on this site) the best Saints player and on came Lambert.

But Lambert ran on not to try and win the game as Pochettino had hoped, but to try and save it, Torres had just given the visitors the lead having reacted quickly as a deflected cross/shot beat Kelvin Davis and came back off the post.

But after this goal there would be no comeback, Chelsea scored again ten minutes later and their would be no late flurry from Saints who now looked disjointed and more worryingly lacking not only confidence but spirit and fight in themselves.

The third goal was not unexpected and started a mass exodus of Saints supporters.

So where has it all gone wrong for Saints, well as mentioned at the start of the article our way of playing has been found out, too many teams know that if they sit back and let us pass it in areas that arent dangerous to them they can eventually get possession and hit us on the break and unfortunately in this respect we are making far too many errors.

We have to be able to adapt when teams do that and also change tactic and surprise them, unfortunately at the moment we dont seem able to do that, hence we have a string of games where we enjoy well over 50% of the play, have a lot of shots, although most of these are from distance and dont trouble the keeper, but dodnt win games.

It is not a crisis at the moment, although 5 points out of the last 9 games is in no way shape of form good and it cannot be denied that we have had a tough run of games, however we are fast reaching a point where we either start to win games again or we start to slip down the table very fast.

In January we have two crucial games the first at home to West Brom and then away to Sunderland, failure to win at least one of those games could see us looking over our shoulder a little, win both and we can start to think of tenth place again.

What the last six weeks has told us though is that we are still a long way from our stated aim of challenging for the Champions League, that is was folly that we could jump from where we were at last season to that in one huge leap, we now have to sit back re group, lick our wounds and look to the next fixtures to start the fight back.

In a week or two Mauricio Pochettino will have been in charge of Saints for a year, then he took over a side who sat 15th in the table with 22 points from 22 games, at the moment his record reads 36 games played and 46 points, what this tells us is that at the moment we are on course for a top ten finish, however we should be mindful that at the moment we are on a downward slope, what happens in these next two games will go a long way to deciding whether Mauricio Pochettino will keep the fans on side or whether they will get on his back, after the Sunderland game it will be his first anniversary and he will have effectively managed for 38 games, whatever happens he will still have a decent points per game average, but these two games will go a long way to deciding how the second half of the season pans out.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 11:40 - Jan 2 I just didn't get the substitution of Cork for Lambert at all. At only 0-1 we shouldn't have changed our shape to go chasing a goal. In the first half after a quick start by Chelsea we came right into the game. Gaston Ramirez was very good and influencing play as was Lallana. The introduction of Lambert changed the shape and we lost our focus in attack with both Ramirez and Lallana seeing less and less of the ball. JRod was not even in the game come the 2nd half. Conversely Chelsea made good substitutions and the game was handed to them. At least we again saw Ramirez's influence and quality and for me must again start next game up.

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montecristo added 11:40 - Jan 2 think you are being a little tough on Saints the fact is the top seven were the top seven last year so no surprises there only Newcastle were below uslast year. Saints need more strength in depth the worrying thing for me is the apparent insistence upon relying solely on the academy, and good though it is I think its asking a little too much. It will be interesting to see if instead of dipping into the transfer market Pochettino promotes players from the under 21s especially at center half where we have been found wanting. Im please to see Ramirez making an impression again he had a good game against both Everton and Chelsea but needs more support. Also needs to know when to release the ball ealier got caught in possession a couple of times needlessly.

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Zambucco added 11:47 - Jan 2 Total agreement Nick, I've changed my stance on our final position. We looked and played like tired old men, and there seemed a slight lack of passion. Lovren made more mistakes in this game than in all the rest put together, yet still a vital and brilliant player. We were beaten by a VERY good side, possibly the best I've seen all season at St. Mary's One thing I'm concerned about is our confidence, although we are still playing well, the players are more than aware, we are dropping too many points lately, and despite being told confidence is high, it will have taken a battering recently. An influx of new 'quality' signings will not alter this, we still have the same squad that we started so well with, and it would be an exceptional couple of players to fit in straight away and make a difference. Hopefully Wanyama and Boruc will be back soon, as their absences have coincided with our recent downturn. As for Mauricio, with Cortese's record, he should be looking over his shoulder! I think he's done brilliantly and should stay. I also thought that about Pardew and Adkins, yet Cortese never listened to me then and I'm sure he won't now! I still won't settle for second best or mediocrity, as Saints of old would always deliver, I expect more from this brilliant group of players COYR!

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TheFoo added 12:00 - Jan 2 MoPo got the substitution so wrong: taking off Cork left a hole - combine that with a day that Spiderman would probably rather forget and we effectively surrendered the area in front of the defence and looked vulnerable from that point onwards. Anyone else think the first goal looked eminently saveable? I haven't seen replays but at the time I thought it was an easy catch. Highlight for me was hearing the "johnstone paint trophy - you'll never win that!" chant back at the visiting fans. Priceless.

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GeordieSaint added 12:12 - Jan 2 Chelsea are a quality outfit and are just kicking into gear to challenge for the league. Not many teams could make substitutions to change the game like that. Saints also needed to take their chances early on. If you go two up like saints should have it is a different game. Don't think the style has been found out just plying some quality teams when key players have been unavailable. A new centre back wouldn't go amiss though

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sidsaint added 12:14 - Jan 2 Many players looked tired yesterday, especially Rodrigues who was off the pace. Looks as if Cork Is always going to be the first player to be substituted. We have now finished a difficult list of fixtures whilst missing key players and meeting Chelsea on top of their game. Hopefully Wanyama and Buoruc will be back soon. We do not have strength in depth it will be interesting to see what team Mauricio puts out on Saturday. Will he rest obviously tired players for the league campaign or go all out for a cup run. Also will he try to strengthen In the transfer window.

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thegeneral added 12:45 - Jan 2 Money talks. We can produce from our academy potentially the next England left back or creative midfielder but teams like Chelsea can just go and buy even better. This is why no matter what they win they will never have my admiration or respect. Southampton has been my only club, man and boy, high's and lows and i feel a lot happier watching a team with a plethora of young English players than any bunch of foreign M. City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal talent. Predictably thats your top four (again), boring isn't it? but how good is it watching a saints team with potential? rather than battling it out with the bottom 7 or 8 clubs because we have had to sell our best players. Yes we cannot fill every position from bargain and academy youngsters and money will have to be spent to compete, and this is where we have failed. Why Wanyama? Cork is as good if not better, Osvaldo? didn't need him, Ramirez? doesn't fit. Injuries to key players with no natural replacement have undone us with a coinciding very tough fixture list, but every club every year has injury problems, we must get smarter quicker.

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halftimeorange added 12:48 - Jan 2 We've just been beaten by one of the top teams in Europe, never mind the PL. We are still work in progress, a mainly young side with a few gaps in our back-up squad (unlike Chelsea). Yesterday's experiment - Rodrigues leading the line and Ramirez play-making - didn't work. We're now through a really difficult stretch and we are patemtly better than at least half the teams in this league. That makes us possibly one of the top 50 sides in Europe. Results will now pick up and we should finish around tenth. Next season, with a few additions to the squad, we should be able to challenge for seventh or eighth. That's progress and we can only hope that Mr Cortese is truly in it for the long haul.

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SaintNick50 added 13:10 - Jan 2 The manager tried your idea of just having Rodriguez up front with Ramirez behind, against Chelsea this didn't work. Ramirez was awful was this his last chance to shine? Yes we have been sussed we desperately need a plan 'B' we haven't had one for some time. Last season Puncheon offered this but has been shipped out (mistake). January shopping list some wide players, another left back, and a central defender. Kelvin played really well, even his distribution was good, don't think he could be blamed for the goals.

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no7saint added 13:13 - Jan 2 Good report, we aren't creating enough good goal-scoring opportunities and the more astute teams have worked out how to play us. The Villa game summed it up for me, 78% possession is an incredible stat in the PL and should have seen us win by a cricket score. In that case a very limited opponent did their homework and we had no plan B. That said Chelsea had a quality team, not to mention bench and we looked like we could handle them until the subs were made. I've a lot more confidence things will pick up when key players come back from injury, particularly good to see Clyne back yesterday.

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slynch added 13:23 - Jan 2 The good news is that Saints don't have to play Chelsea again. Everyone else does.
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schatfield added 13:24 - Jan 2 when i first saw the lineup, i was excited, ramirez starting with Jrod up front, his pace in effect with ramirez pinging those balls to him. Sadly, it didnt work out quite like that and jrod looked off on the day, quite a few players did actually. Must say though, chelseas defense was exceptional and we could have quite easilly gone ahead but for that (Lallanna was superb until 1st goal).....must also add Kelvin was superb today as well and made some crucial saves. goals were unstoppable. good game, just chelsea were better. One last point, chelsea do have a lot of divers though, really annoying to see a team with that talent falling all over the place...

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131153 added 13:31 - Jan 2 I felt yesterday was the first home game when we didn't deserve at least a point from the match. So on balance a pretty good effort to get to halfway point in the season and be in a position to make that statement. I'm pretty sure we would all be happy to have said that in August before the season started. With regard to the substitution of Cork I had started to get the feeling he was getting a bit frustrated and could easily have got a second yellow, I also felt the same with Ramirez. Regarding Ramirez he did put a great deal more effort in than usual, but didn't feel it was going to offer the prospect of much end product. I have enjoyed all the home games this year from a footballing point of view, and therefore feel we should push on with the current policy. If we manage to stay 8-12th by the end of the season and have given our academy players a reasonable amount of game time and therefore experience I for one will consider it to have been a successful second season back in the PL. One further point how do others feel if either one or both of Ramirez or Osvaldo were sold in January (assume at a loss), sad to say I don't feel they will be greatly missed.

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Stephen added 13:35 - Jan 2 Kelvin can't jump as was shown by the first goal. The second goal had Kelvin not moving to his left BEFORE the ball was kicked.
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thegeneral added 14:16 - Jan 2 Too harsh Stephen, the deflected cross for the first goal could have gone anywhere and Kelvin was unsighted by the defender for the second. I thought our keeper did very well and well done to the ref for spotting the dive, Clattenburg would have given a penalty and sent KD off.
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Fordy added 14:20 - Jan 2 I don't agree with people saying Cork is better than Wanyama. You only need to look at how many more goals we have shipped since Wanyama has been out to see what a difference he makes. Cork may well be better with the ball than Wanyama but he doesn't bully the opposition like Victor. Players don't release the ball that much quicker if they see Cork coming like they do when they see Wanyama coming. I am not too pessimistic. We have had a horrid run of fixtures and evey one of our defence has been out at some stage in that period. If we can get the main bakc 7 back together again I am sure it will come good again. I am a little concerned that some of the players are looking jaded but we have a chance now to give some of them a break and hopefully strengthen the squad. I would take the £8m for Rickie and maybe look at bringing Danny Ings back. I

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Hugh_Jarce added 15:09 - Jan 2 Stating the obvious here but against strong teams you need your best GK and defenders and ours have essentially been mainly out since the Chelsea away game. Yes we need to ensure we pick up points from the weaker sides (and soon) but let's not panic. What we did to Fulham and Hull is a true picture of our ability in this league.
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BoondockSaint added 16:01 - Jan 2 No time to panic. We knew this was going to be a bad patch just like the beginning of last season. Coupled with injuries, it was unlikely we would beat the top(money) teams. Can't blame anyone on the first goal. Ball bounced right of post and then right off Torres. If it had dropped to his feet, he would have skyed it like he did earlier. My concern is our lack of scoring, or scoring chances. Possession is very nice, but if you do nothing, you are just letting the opposition save their energy. I hate to use the punit cliche, but we don't seem to be able to 'unlock' the other team if they clog the middle. I'm probably wrong, but it seems the majority of our goals are from outside the penalty are. When did we last score on a set piece? I'm happy Gaston is getting in gear and his corners are right on the money. Still not sold on J-Rod, he may be leading scorer, but unless it's handed to him on a silver platter by some one else, he can't create space or a threat on his own. He still looks nervous and lacking confidence.

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mayfairsaint1 added 16:13 - Jan 2 When Oscar and Willian came on it was like a game of Playstation. These 2 scurrying little figures darting about while everyone else seemed to be moving in slow motion. I'm surprised that anyone was impressed with Ramirez, a couple of decent runs and 1 super through ball to Jrod but how many times does he give the ball away? Christ. My daughter could take the ball off him. Think I've seen enough of him now.

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davepid added 17:02 - Jan 2 Possession into shots into shots on target into goals bevdevilled NA as well as MP now. In truth our squad ,as opposed to our best x1 , is mid table. So we take 4 pts a team from those below us beating them quite easily and impressively but only. 1 point a team from the 8 above us. Looked at that that way ,makes the Aston villa defeat the only one to really hurt - wh ich it did - and possibly Tottenham where a draw would have been OK.

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TimSaint added 17:14 - Jan 2 HAPPY NEW YEAR, SAINTS FANS ONE AND ALL For me this was probably one of the worst performances of the season. Yes, the weather played it's part and it was a 3rd game in 6 or 7 days - but it was the same for both sides. So many of our players did not seem up for this game, including as you say, Shaw etc. I am not sure you can include Lovren in this, because after that knock to the head he received, I wasn't sure he was going to be playing the rest of the game, or the rest of January to that matter. There was far too much giving the ball away cheaply, after we had to battle to win it back in the first place and too many players took many touches too often and got caught in possession. It was almost like we were the ones being pressed and we were being given a piece of our own medicine. I don't really think the tactics worked for us either - yes we needed to smother the creativity of the Chelsea midfield, which we did to an extent in the first half, but we left J Rod on his own too often and he was finding it difficult to see the ball, let alone control it or bring someone else into the game. He did have a great chance from a clever Ramirez through ball, but it wouldn't drop for him and Cole nipped in. The 2nd half changes made by Chelsea had a great impact and totally changed the game and once they scored, we were always going to be chasing the game and leaving gaps at the back etc, but we collapsed and were open to basic errors, erratic defending and lack of desire. You see the 2 x similar chances that Lallana had in the first half - Chelsea had 3 players attempting to block these shots (both of which were blocked), whereas our defence just stood back and watched for the 2nd goal. The 3rd goal too, a simple ball over the defender and no desire to run back. Yes Chelsea had some luck for the first goal that changed the game - a deflected cross that hit the post and fell kindly to Torres, but they could have been in front by then anyway. Torres a couple of times and then not sure why Oscar dived when it was easier to score - this was disgraceful and the FA should act on this - but I doubt anything will happen - same old - he got booked and got punnished at the time so that will suffice !! For Saints, we had a few good chances, and maybe more on target than the stats show, but I am guessing if they are blocked, then they go down as not on target ? Kelvin did very well and could do little about the goals - but at least managed to pull his arms into his body as Oscar rounded him !! Hopefully Wanyama and Boruc will be back soon and we can have a little more confidence installed at the back. So onwards to Saturday - not sure how big our squad is at the moment and how many absentees we currently have, but I am expecting many changes for the Cup match. It would be nice to see a full strength side, getting us back to winning ways, but I can't help feeling that the Xmas fixture pile up has taken it's toll on us and many will be rested. Hope we will have a big crowd but again, with changes expected and the poor run of recent results, I am expecting maybe 20k ? The club are emailing that tickets are available - so they must be seeing the pre-match sales figures and are worried that there will not be much of a walk up - especially if it is raining (again). See you all at SMS on Saturday and here's to a good performance and good win.

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1teeminants added 17:43 - Jan 2 Tim saint 20,000 ?? No chance I'm afraid. The fact is many people, especially. Just after Xmas, will not pay to go and watch saints reserves. Sadly the fa cup means very little to people these days. 15,000 tops I reckon.
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montecristo added 19:26 - Jan 2 I am a little surprised by some of the reactions to Ramirez on Saturday, he certainly as not awful as Nickput it, and MoPo recognized his effort and did not take him off. He is still young, but the ability is there. The bottom line is that by working the gym he can get the engine he needs to play the Southampton way. No doubt thats what has been happening or he would not have got a look in. He is also not screaming to leave either. There hae been reports that he is to go out on loan but somehow I doubt it. To those who say he loses the ball I say this that he is paid to make openings there is risk involved when you are dribbling as he does. They wont always come off, but to his credit every time he loses the ball he tracks back now and I for one will settle for that. If you want a different type of player ie JWP you wont get nearly as many chances against top teams, where you need the unusual to unlock super tight defences. If anything Saints need to support Ramirez more with teammates looking for space to run into so that he has somewhere to put the ball. All too often I saw him isolated with noone to support him against Chelsea, no one twos but with time and the right support we could start to unlock defences. Think we should sign Banega. And Eric Dier whom I know well with Sporting Lisbon.

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leighsaint added 20:02 - Jan 2 I think kelvin d excell himself in the first half but was back to his normal some good and some not so good in the second half. I think he was at fault with at least 1goal mabe 2. Ramereze doesn't know we are playing in red as he kept passing to the blue team. To take off Jack Cork and then Stephen Davis was asking for trouble. Once jack went off Oscar dominated the mid field. We miss Borac and Wanyma and our replacements are not good enough. Jay Rod is not our answer when you look at Torries his speed and his awareness leaves Jay Rod with a lot to learn, Torries may not be scoring many goals but he pulls defenders all over the pitch. I think are team were Lethargic on Wednesday and Mopos tactic of a high pressing game is starting to take effect on the team. I still think we can make amends in the second half of the season and hope for more wins than defeats from now to the end of the season

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mayfairsaint1 added 22:47 - Jan 2 In reply to Montcristo, I would like nothing more than to see Ramirez come good but its alarming to see how often he gives the ball away and misplaces passes. Have you ever seen him win a 50 50 challenge? Giving the ball away to the likes of Chelsea is suicidal, you get punished. He's skillful but not skiful or strong enough to keep possesion when challenged. Oh to be proved wrong.

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