Timo Werner and Mason Mount score twice as Chelsea crush Southampton

Timo Werner hit the woodwork three times but still scored twice as Chelsea arrested their mini slump by hammering sorry Southampton.

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 them ever closer to a third-place finish, with London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham starting to lag behind in the table.

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 2 March.

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

Chelsea were so dominant