Chelsea’s chase for top spot hits bumpy patch at Bridge

Chelsea 0 Southampton 0

It was Chelsea’s sixth consecutive home clean sheet, but despite good chances falling to Gianfranco Zola and substitute William Gallas and Marcel Desailly in the closing stages, the Saints deserved a share of the spoils after matching their opponents all afternoon.

Both sides had gone into this match on the back of unbeaten runs, Chelsea’s now stretches to 11 while Southampton’s is six, so perhaps a draw was inevitable.

It was certainly a fair result after a closely-fought encounter with which neither team ever doing enough to win.

Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri insisted he was happy with his side’s performance saying insisting it was a good point to win due to the state of the Stamford Bridge pitch.

“I’m pleased with our performance because it was a very difficult game and the pitch was very bad. Southampton have good organisation and play altogether and narrow and very efficient.

“It was difficult for us to build the action. The first thing was to maintain the balance on the pitch and then try to build.”

Ranieri was uncertain how his side failed to score in the closing stages.

“We created some chances to score and I think in the last chance there were two goalkeepers! But it’s okay, last season we lost 4-2 against them so it’s a little improvement.”

Saints manager Gordon Strachan was delighted with his team’s display, especially their first-half performance in which they more than matched their opponents.

“We had better chances than them in the first half. When we had to attack we were good and when we had to defend we were good.

“In the second half we did well as we had to stand up and be counted. We played to our strengths on the pitch, but we were comfortable.

“On a good day, we get a break and score a couple but on an unlucky day they get the goals at the end.”

Strachan was quick to praise goalkeeper Antti Niemi, who saved well from Gallas close to the end of the match, and strikers Jo Tessem and James Beattie, as his side fought hard to claim their point. “It was a fantastic save so he’s done very well and I thought the two strikers in the first half were excellent. They made sure they didn’t have it easy.”

The Saints boss also bemoaned the state of the pitch although he felt it may have helped his side maintain their unbeaten run.

“It’s not conducive to great football. We’d love to play the beautiful game, but we didn’t want to play Chelsea at their game because they’d be better than us, no doubt about it,” he added.

CHELSEA: de Goey, Babayaro, Desailly, Terry, Melchiot (Gallas 86), Zenden (Lampard 85), Petit, Morris, De Lucas (Gudjohnsen 80), Zola, Hasselbaink.

SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Bridge, Michael Svensson, Lundekvam, Telfer, Marsden, Delap, Oakley (Anders Svensson 90), Fernandes, Beattie, Tessem (Davies 85).

Referee: P Durkin (Dorset).