Russell Martin makes a bold claim ahead of Southampton vs Chelsea

Speaking ahead of the Southampton vs Chelsea fixture, Russell Martin has made a bold claim about his "excitement", despite the Saints' adversities.

Russell Martin's Southampton have only won one Premier League game this season. Next up, they host one of the biggest teams in the country in Chelsea. The Blues are in-form and they will be eager to take all the points from St Marys Stadium.

Standing in their way, though, will be the Saints. Rock-bottom of the Premier League but Russell Martin is confident that his team and his players have a point to prove. Not only is Martin confident in his players but he is also confident in his system, since in his mind, it's been tried and tested.

Russell Martin makes a bold claim ahead of Southampton vs Chelsea

Speaking ahead of hosting Chelsea at St Marys Stadium, Russell Martin admitted that he was excited about working around the current injury and suspension crisis at Southampton.

In his own words, Martin said: "We have to adapt, we have to tweak, without losing what we believe in. I'm looking forward to seeing how we cope with that. It's quite exciting trying to work out the best way to accommodate those suspensions and injuries in the same way when we knew others were going to come out."

Martin clearly has a different mind to Southampton fans. Heading into this match, the Saints are divided in terms of confidence levels.

On one hand, the result against Brighton away from home was a great result and one to build on momentum wise. On the other hand, Flynn Downes, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Tyler Dibling are all suspended and cannot face Chelsea.

While Russell Martin is obviously trying to rally-up his team and inspire greater confidence levels for this match, he isn't pulling the wool over any of our eyes.

It goes without saying that he would much prefer to have his strongest options available. This way, Southampton would only maximise their chances of picking up points against Chelsea.

There are players who can step up and fill in the missing positions. It doesn't make the fact they are missing any easier, though. The biggest miss for the Saints is Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who will be missing from an already injury-struck position. He has been a mainstay at the back this season.

In the last match, Flynn Downes scored his first Southampton goal. He would've been eager to make back-to-back involvements. Tyler Dibling will also feel dejected to miss this match, considering the impression he's made on the Premier League so far.

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