Chelsea played on the front foot right from the start at St Mary’s and the home side appeared to have no answer to our attacking vigour, as Marcos Alonso opened the scoring in the eighth minute and soon had plenty of company on the scoresheet, as Mason Mount and Timo Werner both hit braces, alongside Kai Havertz’s goal.

It wasn’t just about the players’ brilliant performance on the pitch, though, as some subtle tactical changes by Tuchel also had a large part to play in our big win, as we bounced back from consecutive defeats in style on the South Coast.

Front two a constant threat

‘We expected a 4-4-2 and the high pressing and wanted to pin the defenders with two strikers and find Mason in a bit of an open position in-between the lines,’ explained Tuchel, as he evaluated the match after the final whistle.

‘We anticipated the aggressive 4-4-2 and wanted to have three midfielders against the two midfielders to have an advantage and to have the ideal position for Kai and Timo. So that was the idea behind it.’

The shift to a 3-4-1-2 shape, as opposed to the 3-4-2-1 which has been the hallmark of Tuchel’s Chelsea, or the 4-1-4-1 that has been used several times more recently, certainly had a big influence on the game, and the shift was clear from the players’ average positions on the pitch.

With Havertz and Werner both playing high up the pitch and occupying the centre-backs, Mount was left with the room, time and freedom to roam as a more traditional No10, picking up pockets of space to hurt Southampton from.

In terms of the attacking trio of Werner, Havertz and Mount, the biggest effect was obvious, though, as they scored five of our six goals between them and were a constant menace to the Southampton defence, as we registered an impressive 24 shots to the Saints’ four.

Werner, in particular, seemed to be enjoying himself, using his pace to play on the shoulders of the centre-backs and punish their high defensive line. In addition to his two goals, it saw the German register eight shots and four on target, both numbers more than double the whole Southampton team combined.

Those figures are made even more impressive by the fact three of his four efforts which missed the target only did so by the narrowest of margins, striking the woodwork, and one of those directly led to Havertz’s goal. Werner’s eight shots were also five more than any other player on the pitch, with Mount and Alonso in joint-second place with three each.

Controlled aggression

As well as exploiting the space between Southampton’s midfield and defence when we were on the ball, Mount played an important part when we were out of possession. Then he dropped in to make it a midfield three alongside Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante, providing us with a numerical advantage in that area, while it was also the Englishman who led and instigated our own press as the most advanced of the trio.

The way we won the ball back so quickly and repeatedly was another area highlighted by Tuchel as key, backed up by the somewhat surprising statistic that despite the Blues enjoying 71 per cent of possession, we actually attempted more tackles than our opponents, by 32 to 26.

Equally important, though, was the fact we were successful in an impressive 29 of those 32 attempted tackles. Those figures were helped in no small part by our three midfielders, as Kovacic (seven), Kante (five) and Mount (four) all won 100 per cent of their tackles, taking complete control of the midfield area.

Support from wide

Of course, taking control of the centre of the pitch is only an effective strategy if we can prevent our opponents from bypassing our midfield by attacking down the flanks or playing longer passes direct to their strikers, with both being especially dangerous in their 4-4-2 formation.

There was little threat of Southampton finding joy out wide, though, as our wing-backs took on slightly different roles, and personnel, than usual. On the left, Alonso was forced to stay wider without some of the additional width offered by a front three, although he still managed to make his customary late arrival at the back post to score the first goal.

However, it was more common to see the Spaniard hugging the touchline and delivering dangerous balls into the box, resulting in his five key passes making him the only player to be credited with more than two, while supplying four of our eight crosses.

On the other side, Ruben Loftus-Cheek filled in as a wing-back, with Cesar Azpilicueta testing positive for Covid and Reece James still returning to full fitness following injury. It was a position the midfielder excelled in, though, operating almost as a wide playmaker.

The problems Loftus-Cheek caused were summed up by the fact he was fouled six times, twice as many as anyone else, while only Andreas Christensen (six) won more than his five aerial duels, snuffing out the Saints' attempts at using high balls into the channels for their wingers to chase.