Saints Marching
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Chelsea 1-0 Southampton: Match takeaways

By Nikos Lemanis

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 16: N'Golo Kantea of Chelsea nd Oriol Romeu of Southampton battle for posession during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Southampton at Stamford Bridge on December 16, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 16: N'Golo Kantea of Chelsea nd Oriol Romeu of Southampton battle for posession during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Southampton at Stamford Bridge on December 16, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 16: Marcos Alonso of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Southampton at Stamford Bridge on December 16, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 16: Marcos Alonso of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Southampton at Stamford Bridge on December 16, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /

A pattern of conceding

Saints have made a disturbing habit of conceding goals late in both halves this season.

On a number of occasions the lack of ability to see out a half has cost the team dearly. This pattern continued at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Although Chelsea had been pretty dominant throughout the first 45 minutes, going into halftime on level terms would have allowed the manager a very different team talk.

Saints have recently struggled to adapt and recover after going behind. And conceding before the break is always doubly hard to deal with. A perfect example of this came when Chicharito found the net in the 45th minute of the early season game against West Ham. Saints went on to concede their 2-0 lead, then had to rely on a red card and 93rd minute penalty to reclaim all three points.

The issue has been even more pronounced at the end of the second half. Manchester City, Burnley and Stoke have all claimed late winners against Southampton this season – that’s three points dropped. Arsenal also rescued a draw late last weekend, which is another two points dropped. Those five points would have made a big difference to the season so far.

Whether it’s nerves, fatigue, concentration or an inability to deal with increased late pressure from opponents, Pellegrino desperately needs to work on a fix for this.