Chelsea 3-1 Southampton: 5 Things To Consider

1. Too Few Saints? - Is The Squad Capable Maintaining Their Early Season Form?

The injury to Artur Boruc will be a hammer blow to the Saints and their hopes of a decent run over the festive period. The Pole fractured his hand in the build up to the first goal and has been ruled out for 6 weeks. With club captain Kelvin Davis not quite fit for this game, it fell to young understudy Paolo Gazzaniga to don the gloves and his first job was to pick the ball out of the net after Terry's goal. Pochettino will need to decide whether to place his trust in the more experieced Davis or young Gazzaniga, both of whom tasted first team action last season. It will be a chance for one of them to stake their claim and make the number one jersey their own again. Pochettino bought wisely in the summer, with the signings of Dejan Lovren from Lyon and Victor Wanyama from Celtic, looking to be a couple of shrewd signings. Couple that, with the emergence of young English players such as Shaw, Clyne, Ward-Prowse and Lallana and you can see why they have started so well. The concern for Pochettino will be the depth of his squad, as a couple of injuries to key performers and you struggle to see who will replace them. All teams have their periods of injuries and the Christmas period is especially gruelling. Saints style of play could catch up with them at some point and they appeared to tire in the second half of this game. They like to press high up the pitch and counter with pace and purpose. Although they look like one of the fitter sides in the league, there may be a time when they hit the brick wall. It is therefore likely that Pochettino will need to dip into the January market to give his side the cover and the competition required to maintain what has been an excellent first third of the season.