Can Saints stop the Chelsea machine?
Southampton host the champions on 26 January with a top-three place and a chance to end a painful recent run against the Blues.
Southampton have spent a decade trying to find a way past Chelsea – and have one win in their last six league meetings to show for it. On 26 January, at St. Mary's, they get another go.
The Premier Division leaders arrive with 61 points from 22 games, a goal difference of +59, and a fixture list that has barely slowed them. Chelsea beat Burnley 2-0 in the FA Cup today, and their only league defeat since mid-December came at Rotherham United on 5 January. The last time these two met, on 15 September, Chelsea won 4-0 at home. The time before that, 1-0 at St. Mary's. The time before that, 4-1 at St. Mary's. Southampton's lone recent win came back in March 2062, a 1-0 at home, and before that you have to go back to September 2061.
But this is a different Southampton. They sit third, level on points with Liverpool and one ahead of Rotherham, and they have won five of their last six in the league, including a 2-0 home win over Manchester United on 5 January and a 3-0 win at Wolves on 29 December. They beat Portsmouth 2-0 in the FA Cup today, and they have not lost at home in the league since Chelsea beat them there in March.
They will need all of that. Chelsea's front line has scored 59 goals in 22 league games, and Southampton's defence, missing Luke Magee, Vasile Moldovan and Mouhamed Sané through injury, will have to be at its best. Cristiano Messina, the left-back who spent six seasons at Chelsea from 2050 to 2056, will know exactly what is coming. Marcos Delfino, the striker who won eight trophies with the Blues before moving to Southampton in 2052, will lead the line against his old club.
It is a fixture that has belonged to Chelsea for a long time. Southampton's task is to make it theirs for one afternoon.