CHELSEA STUMBLED AT St Mary’s in their quest for this year’s league title as Southampton held the Blues to a 1-1 draw this afternoon.
An upset appeared on the cards when Sadio Mane made the most of sloppy defending from Chelsea captain John Terry, recently promised a new deal by Mourinho, to race through and deftly lift over Thibaut Courtois for his second goal in as many matches.
However, a moment of brilliance from Eden Hazard shortly before the break levelled proceedings, as he curled home his seventh league goal of the campaign.
Chelsea pushed hard for a winner after the break and felt hard done by when Cesc Fabregas was booked for simulation despite being tripped by Matt Targett.
But Mourinho’s side had to settle for a point – despite an 88th-minute red card for Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin.
Dusan Tadic, one of four Southampton changes from the 3-1 beating of Crystal Palace on Boxing Day, tested the water early with a shot from distance that went well wide.
The Serbia winger then played an influential role as the hosts moved ahead in the 16th minute.
His expertly dinked throughball caught Terry flat-footed and the Chelsea skipper was left trailing in Mane’s wake as the Senegal winger sprung the offside trap and kept his cool to lift the ball over Courtois.
However, the visitors restored parity on the stroke of half-time with a fine finish from Hazard.
Creator-in-chief Fabregas showed great vision to play a delicate chip into the path of Hazard in the left channel, who cut inside Belgium colleague Toby Alderweireld and bent a fierce shot into the far corner.
Fabregas was again involved 10 minutes after the break when he was tripped inside the penalty area by teenage full-back Targett – making his first league start in place of Chelsea loanee Ryan Bertrand – but referee Anthony Taylor deemed it a dive and booked the incredulous Spaniard.
For all the visitors’ pressure a clear-cut opportunity never materialised and even when Schneiderlin received a second yellow card and subsequent red for hacking down Fabregras on the half-way line Chelsea could not find a way through, missing the chance to keep daylight between themselves and Manchester City.
