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Saints V Chelsea The Opposition View

The Ugly Inside have been speaking with Chelsea fan Ryan Darby from readchelsea.com about his views ahead of Saturday afternoon's game.

TUI: There’s only one place to start and that’s the boss, Guus Hiddink. He has come in and he has more or less steadied the ship, so what’s different to Mourinho?

RD: I think it would be fair to say the players lost confidence under Jose Mourinho.

Guus Hiddink has come in and done a very good job, he's kept everything very simple and calm.

Ultimately, he's come in and reminded the players of how good they really are and got them enjoying their football again.

TUI: Moving onto the form guide, although Chelsea had a dreadful start to the campaign, they are still unbeaten under Hiddink in the league but in those 10 games there have been 6 draws and 4 wins, why do you think they have drawing so many games?

Can we expect to see many goals?

RD: The mixed form has all come from our shaky defence. A lot of which came down to confidence.

It carried over, even after Mourinho had left the club. We've been rocked with some serious injuries to John Terry and Kurt Zouma of late, but the defence looks to be getting back to its best.

We've scored five in our last two home games, albeit against a very poor Newcastle side and Manchester City's 'youth' team so don't rule it out on the road!

TUI: Hiddink seems to have rejuvenated a few players since his arrival but who would you say are the key players in the team right now?

What will Saints have to do to keep them quiet?

RD: The key players have to be the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa and Willian.

But due to our recent form a number of players could be named here, even John Obi Mikel is a good run of form!

Fabregas has been key to our mid-season revival and Southampton must not give him any time on the ball. He likes to pick the ball up from deep and before he's even got the ball under control he knows where it's going.

He loves the lobbed ball over the top, be that to a winger or Diego Costa.


TUI: And finally, how do you see the game going? Can we have a prediction please?

RD: I think it's definitely going to be a tough game for us. I would fancy Southampton to score at home, but I wouldn't rule out us grabbing a goal or two.

I think the game will be close and will end in score draw. Be that either 1-1 or 2-2.

To read more from Ryan Darby and other writers go to www.readchelsea.com

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