Confirmed Chelsea side vs Southampton – Christensen keeps spot, Loftus-Cheek and Werner return

Thomas Tuchel has made four changes to his Chelsea side for this afternoon's Premier League clash against Southampton – the biggest of which sees Timo Werner return to the attack at the expense of Christian Pulisic.

After back-to-back defeats to Brentford at Real Madrid, the Blues need to get back on track at St Mary's. And Tuchel has named a strong side despite the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final taking place at the Bernabeu taking place in just three days' time.

Despite speculation to the contrary ahead of the game, Edouard Mendy keeps his place in the Chelsea goal despite his high-profile error in the midweek defeat to Los Blancos. There are changes in defence ahead of the Senegal international in what appears to be a back four.

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Andreas Christensen keeps his spot but appears to be deployed at right-back. The centre-back duo is Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger, and Marcos Alonso returns to the starting XI, having not featured in Wednesday night's 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is back in the Chelsea midfield, as is Mateo Kovacic. N'Golo Kante keeps his place despite an ineffective 45-minute appearance against Real Madrid. The Frenchman also captains the Blues.

In the frontline, Tuchel has opted to make just a single change to the side that started the midweek defeat to Real. Pulisic, who struggled to make an impact, drops to the bench and is replaced by Timo Werner on the left. Kai Havertz continues as the number nine, with Mason Mount starting once more on the right.

: Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger, Alonso; Loftus-Cheek, Kante, Kovacic; Mount, Havertz, Werner

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