ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Chelsea 3
Southampton 3
LONDON • Southampton came from behind twice yesterday to earn a 3-3 draw at Chelsea, despite Timo Werner scoring two skilful individual goals for the home side, his first in the Premier League.
Southampton's Jannik Vestergaard scored from a free kick in injury time after an entertaining and open game of fluctuating fortunes.
"I was confident we'd get another chance on the second-half performance," said the Saints defender. "I was happy to get the chance and guide the ball in. On the second-half performance, it was deserved."
Werner - who joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig in June - had earlier lit up Stamford Bridge with a delightful dummied goal in the 15th minute. He scored another in the 28th when he lobbed over the advancing Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, then headed into the empty goal.
The £54 million (S$94.8 million) striker should have had a third in the 40th minute, but the German blazed the ball over the bar.
Three minutes later, Southampton pulled one back when Danny Ings rounded goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga after Werner's compatriot Kai Havertz lost the ball deep in the Chelsea half.
Southampton kept up the attacking pressure in the second half. They earned their equaliser in the 57th minute, after some shambolic home defending when Kurt Zouma misjudged a back pass and Kepa missed the ball which Che Adams eventually slammed into the roof of the net.
But Chelsea struck back immediately with a well-worked goal, the ever-busy Werner crossing for Havertz to earn his own first Premier League goal with a simple tap-in, only for Southampton to equalise again in injury time.
According to Sky Sports, Chelsea have conceded an average of 1.5 goals per game in the Premier League under Frank Lampard (63 in 43 games), the Blues' worst rate under any manager to oversee more than one game in the competition.
"I don't know if we have a problem, but the last three games we concede six goals and it is not where we want to be, to compete for titles," said Werner.
"In Germany, we always say defence wins titles. If we concede so many it is hard to win games and win titles.
"The first half we played very well. But Southampton made a lot of pressure on us and pressed us high. We gave them too much in terms of opportunities."
REUTERS
