Southampton's captain, Jack Stephens, was shown a red card for pulling Marc Cucurella's hair during a Premier League match against Chelsea, which ended in a 5-1 thrashing for the bottom-ranked club. Stephens was dismissed in the 39th minute after tugging Cucurella's curls in a moment of inexplicable madness. By that time, Chelsea was already leading 3-1, thanks to goals from Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke, after Southampton's Joe Aribo briefly equalized Axel Disasi's early opener.
In the second half, Cole Palmer and Jadon Sancho added to Southampton's woes, extending Chelsea's unbeaten run to six top-flight games. Chelsea could have won by a larger margin, hitting the woodwork three times and missing several other chances. Chelsea's head coach, Enzo Maresca, had warned his team to expect a tough game in Hampshire, making seven changes to the lineup following their impressive 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
Filip Jörgensen made his Premier League debut as part of the squad rotation, while Southampton was missing several key players due to injury and suspension. Chelsea took the lead when Disasi headed home from a corner by Enzo Fernández. Southampton briefly leveled the score in the 11th minute through Aribo, but it was all downhill from there.
Chelsea regained the lead when Madueke intercepted a pass from Southampton's goalkeeper Joe Lumley to Kyle Walker-Peters, allowing Nkunku to score. Lumley partially redeemed himself by deflecting a Palmer shot onto the post. Madueke then doubled Chelsea's lead by curling a shot into the bottom left corner. Southampton's Stephens was sent off just before halftime after a VAR review for a foolish tangle with Cucurella.
In the second half, Palmer and Sancho scored to further dampen the spirits of the home supporters, while the away fans celebrated with chants of 'we've got our Chelsea back'.
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