Southampton rally to see off stuttering Chelsea

Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong condemned Chelsea to defeat as Southampton leapfrogged the lacklustre Blues in the Premier League.

Teenage midfielder Lavia became the first player born in 2004 to score in the Premier League with a fine strike at St Mary's Stadium, before Armstrong broke a 22-game duck as Saints stunned Chelsea.

The visitors had led through Raheem Sterling’s third goal in two games, only for Southampton to turn the game on its head in a challenging night for Thomas Tuchel’s side.

Chelsea might be a team in transition with more big-name and big-money arrivals just around the corner courtesy of bullish new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.

But the top-four-hunting Blues should still not be in the business of losing a clash like this against a remodelled and youthful, but admittedly gritty, Southampton.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s rejuvenated Saints jumped ahead of Chelsea into seventh place in the table, with a major win for the south coast men.

The Blues were left to lick the wounds of two costly defeats on their travels, just five games into the new campaign.

Chelsea can expect to slip further down the embryonic table after Wednesday’s fixtures, with Tuchel’s rebuilding job clearly boasting great promise but not yet delivering.

A central striker could hardly be more craved by a Chelsea side so creatively capable, but so far too reliant on Sterling’s finishing powers.

The Blues will now hope even more to complete the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona, while centre-back Wesley Fofana’s move from Leicester is expected to be announced shortly.

Chelsea settled faster and set about stretching the Saints set-up.

Sterling latched onto a neat through-ball, smartly shifting direction to create space and a fine