Kevin Davies kicked Chelsea in the title teeth to land a potential knockout
blow on West London's championship challenge.
Ruud Gullit's men had arrived at The Dell looking to take full toll of
Manchester United's Highfield Road upset and close the gap to four points.
After two wins over the Saints already this term, Gullit must have expected
his men would complete a hat-trick of triumphs.
But 20-year-old Davies, Graeme Souness' £750,000 parting gift from
Chesterfield, had scored in both of those defeats to show he is a real handful.
And tonight he did it once again to perhaps finish off the Blues' realistic
title hopes as Saints earned the reward for non-stop effort and determination.
When Carlton Palmer broke clear on the right to feed low into the middle,
Davies looked second favourite behind Frank Sinclair.
Yet as the defender fatally hesitated, Davies swooped, sticking out his right
foot to divert into the net for his 11th goal of the season.
Chelsea, despite an abundance of possession, never really recovered, failing
to test Paul Jones enough to get anything from the game.
And when Sinclair incredibly blazed over from eight yards six minutes from
time there was to be no way back.
It meant Chelsea have already lost six times this season - Alex Ferguson's
worst-case scenario for potential champions - including losses at Coventry and
Bolton as well as the South Coast strugglers.
In addition, and so damagingly, they have dropped seven points out of their
last 12, at psychologically the worst possible time, as Saints rightly
celebrated an unlikely triumph.
United's slip-up at Coventry had given the Blues the ideal incentive to show
they are realistic challengers.
But even though Mark Hughes and Gianfranco Zola were paired together again up
front - Tore Andre Flo and Luca Vialli left out - they had a disjointed look.
The absence of the suspended Dennis Wise was critical, Paul Hughes looking
like a man out for three months, while Frank Leboeuf's late withdrawal with a
virus hardly helped.
Even so, the Chelsea defence had not been stretched before Southampton went
ahead, with Gullit's men looking in vain for a flag as Jason Dodd sent the
non-stop Palmer galloping away down the right.
When Davies converted, Roberto Di Matteo led the protests, to no avail,
although the setback did at least herald a better spell as Chelsea showed why
they had scored 10 in their last two away games.
Southampton were caught napping, all eyes on Zola, as Graeme Le Saux played a
corner to Dan Petrescu, and while he scuffed his shot, it fell to Hughes.
The Welsh striker span on a sixpence to beat Paul Jones, but the ball struck
Matthew Oakley on the line and was hacked away.
Still, it was a taste of what Chelsea could do, the corner itself coming from
a fast break, and when Di Matteo led another advance from deep to feed Zola the
leveller looked to be looming.
Zola's ball in was delightful, but Di Matteo somehow failed to get the touch
that would have nudged home, and Hughes could not react quickly enough.
The little Sardinian decided it was time to do it himself, twice testing Jones
from 20 yards and then firing wide.
But for all Chelsea's possession, it was Saints, with Matt Le Tissier pushed
further forward alongside Davies and David Hirst, who could have finished the
match off.
First Le Tissier found Oakley, who in turn played Davies in behind the square
back line. As Ed De Goey raced out, Davies was quicker, poking past the Dutchman
but also past the post.
Davies then returned the compliment, Oakley snatching at his effort and
sending it over the bar, but even so Dave Jones would have been the happier at
the break.
Gullit had to alter the way things were going, and Chelsea picked up the pace,
but at almost every step they were thwarted by Palmer's all-action frame, those
long legs getting in everywhere.
Half-openings were squandered, Paul Hughes heading weakly from Zola, Sinclair
wasting a great opening by crossing straight at Jones.
When they did hit the target, Mark Hughes crashing home from Zola, the flag
was up, and it was no surprise when Gullit made two switches, sending on big Flo
and Mark Nicholls and hauling off Petrescu and Danny Granville.
Even so, it was Saints who created the real opening, Oakley putting Davies in
on De Goey again, with the Dutchman saving and mightily relieved as Hirst
blasted the rebound over.
That looked as if it might be costly when Flo robbed Dodd to advance on goal,
but Jones stuck out his left leg to block.
The giant Norwegian then headed over from Zola when he should have done far
better.
That chance was almost difficult compared to Sinclair's, after Le Saux's
mis-hit had dribbled through to him.
But as the ball went flying away, Gullit may feel his team's hopes of beating
United to the big prize went with them.
Teams
Southampton: Jones, Dodd, Benali, Palmer, Monkou, Lundekvam,
Le Tissier (Williams 80), Oakley, Hirst (Ostenstad 66), Davies,
Richardson.
Subs Not Used: Slater, Hughes, Moss.
Booked: Palmer.
Goals: Davies 16.
Chelsea: De Goey, Petrescu (Flo 59), Le Saux, Clarke, Duberry,
Sinclair, P. Hughes (Vialli 89), Di Matteo, Granville, M. Hughes,
Zola.
Subs Not Used: Hitchcock, Myers, Nicholls.
Booked: Le Saux.
Att: 15,231
Ref: M J Bodenham (East Looe).
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