Chelsea rout Southampton 6-0 as Timo Werner scores twice

Timo Werner hit the woodwork three times but still scored twice as Chelsea arrested their mini slump by hammering sorry Southampton 6-0 at St Mary’s.

Germany forward Werner produced a perfect hat-trick of sorts by striking the left post, right post and crossbar – but shrugged off those misses with a morale-boosting brace.

Mason Mount helped himself to a double too, with Marcos Alonso and Kai Havertz also on target to hand Chelsea a much-needed winning tonic.

Chelsea’s fourth win in their last five Premier League matches inched the Blues ever closer to a third-place finish, with London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham starting to lag behind in the table.

Boss Thomas Tuchel revealed a sleepless Wednesday night binging on chocolate in re-watching Chelsea’s 3-1 Champions League quarter-final loss to Real Madrid.

Chelsea held summit talks on Thursday in a bid to hit back after leaking seven goals in two matches, given the Blues’ 4-1 home reverse to Brentford last Saturday.

Tuchel admitted he did most of the speaking in a tough-love talking-to for his players, and on this evidence that mix of meeting-room candour and late-night candy has paid immediate dividends.

Chelsea’s German coach insisted the Blues’ Champions League chances were all but over after that first-leg loss to Real.

The Blues will at least now head to the Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday night buoyed up by a victory as bullish as it was bullying on the south coast.

Southampton slumped to their fifth defeat in six matches in all competitions, with their last win the 3-1 FA Cup victory over West Ham on March 2.

Saints’ third-heaviest loss under Hasenhuttl, after the much-documented 9-0 humiliations at the hands of Leicester and Manchester United, crystallised a wretched