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Neil Johnston, BBC Sport
It will require a monumental effort for Chelsea to overturn a 3-1 Champions League deficit against Real Madrid on Tuesday, but at least they head to Spain’s capital for the second leg of their quarter-final tie in buoyant mood following the six-goal demolition of Southampton.
The Blues’ season looked like it was falling apart after back-to-back damaging defeats by Brentford and Real.
Instead it was Southampton who unravelled at St Mary’s on Saturday.
Chelsea’s stylish win was achieved without £97.5m Romelu Lukaku, who was injured, and Cesar Azpilicueta, who has tested positive for coronavirus.
Will they be available to face Crystal Palace at Wembley next Sunday in the FA Cup – a competition that represents Chelsea’s most realistic chance of landing a major domestic trophy this season?
For Saints fans, the heavy defeat brought back painful memories of embarrassing 9-0 defeats at the hands of Manchester United and Leicester City under Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Chelsea were 6-0 up with 36 minutes of the game still left. Southampton can count themselves fortunate their opponents did not score more.
The visitors hit the woodwork three times, while Fraser Forster made some fine saves as the Blues carved out 24 chances – 14 on target.
Despite this humiliation, Southampton could still finish the season in the top half of the table. But they must flush this result out of their system quickly if they want to seal a top-10 finish for the first time since 2016-17.
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