Southampton were well-beaten by Chelsea on Sunday afternoon with the final score a healthy 4-1 in favour of the Blues.
A frantic first-half and quick attacking play from the visitors saw goals from Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and N’Golo Kante, whilst Saints striker Danny Ings replied for his side.
Substitute Michy Batshuayi rounded off the afternoon late-on and confirmed a routine victory for Frank Lampard’s men.
False hope was given to Saints fans early on when Nathan Redmond had the first shot on goal in the first minute; the winger seeing his vicious strike whistle just over the bar.
However, Tammy Abraham – the most in-form man on the pitch at St Mary’s – opened the scoring in the 16th minute.
Hesitancy from Angus Gunn coming off his line saw the striker nip in between the goalkeeper and Maya Yoshida to loft over the goal line despite the latter’s best efforts at clearing.
It was a blow to Saints and their fans and Chelsea would take advantage of their spell on top when Abraham’s fellow England star Mason Mount doubled their lead.
A gap appeared from Willian to slide the midfielder through on goal and Mount had the relatively simple task of smashing in at the near post – no less than the visitors deserved with Saints well off the pace.
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Against the run of play though, Yan Valery produced a mazy run into the Chelsea penalty area whilst evading multiple challenges and crossed low to Danny Ings, where the striker poked home from close range.
Game on? Not really, as it proved.
It was 3-1 at half-time thanks to a further goal from N’Golo Kante. The Frenchman’s strike from just outside the area took a huge deflection off of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and flew into the opposite corner of the net with Angus Gunn wrong-footed.
The second-half saw no attacks of note from Saints as they struggled to bypass the Chelsea press and also struggled to get to grips with the the attacks coming towards their goal.
Instead, a fourth for the visitors was added when substitute Michy Batshuayi got in on the act.
Christian Pulisic slid the striker through and the Belgian clipped a left-footed striker under the onrushing Gunn to round off the perfect afternoon for the Blues.
Both sides head into the international break now but it will be Saints who will be most pleased about the break with vast improvements needed as they delve deeper into a tough run of fixtures.
Saints team: Gunn, Valery, Bednarek, Yoshida, Bertrand, Hojbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Redmond (Boufal 81), Ings (Adams 81), Long (Obafemi 73)
Subs not used: McCarthy, Stephens, Armstrong, Danso