Predicted Southampton line-up vs Chelsea: Stuart Armstrong to start?

Southampton will be looking to pull off a surprise when they take on Chelsea away from home this weekend.

Saints are yet to win in the Premier League this season and were dealt a blow last time out when they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Wolves – a game that they really would have been targeting maximum points from.

A true test comes tomorrow with Chelsea to face. Ralph Hasenhuttl and his side will have to channel some of the performance in the goalless draw against Manchester City and perhaps a part of the 2-0 win that Saints grabbed at Stamford Bridge back in 2019/20.

With results not entirely as he would have wanted, Hasenhuttl will perhaps look to switch things in his starting line-up to bring about a change in fortunes.

Southampton will look to hit on the break but need a defined avenue of attack

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Hasenhuttl had some positive news on Stuart Armstrong after the Scotland international returned to training following a calf injury.

Saints have seemingly missed the 29-year-old hugely at the beginning of this season and they will be hoping that he can reignite a stalling forward line with his creativity and knack for chipping in with important goals.

Given that he has been on the sidelines for a while, it is perhaps unreasonable to expect him to start this weekend. He will need more training time under his belt to get back up to full speed once again but could still take a place on the subs bench at Chelsea.

Romain Perraud and Moussa Djenepo could come back in to start with a solid defensive setup and potential for fast counter-attacks required this time around.

Predicted Saints line-up

Alex McCarthy; Tino Livramento, Jan Bednarek, Mohammed Salisu, Romain Perraud; James Ward-Prowse, Oriol Romeu; Mohamed Elyounoussi, Moussa Djenepo; Che Adams, Adam Armstrong