With Jack Stephens sent off for a hair-pull on Marc Cucurella before halftime, Chelsea’s thrilling 5-1 victory over bottom-place Southampton on Wednesday reduced the gap to leaders Liverpool in the Premier League.
Chelsea moves up to second place in the standings with 28 points, seven points behind leaders Liverpool and two ahead of Manchester City, while Arsenal, who play Manchester United, is one point behind them.
Chelsea took the lead in the seventh minute through a header from Axel Disasi, but Joe Aribo tied the score four minutes later before a goalkeeping error allowed Christopher Nkunku to put the visitors back ahead.
Chelsea took the lead 11 minutes from halftime thanks to Noni Madueke, and even after Stephens was sent off, the visitors had to wait until the 76th minute before Cole Palmer added a fourth goal, and three minutes from the end, Jadon Sancho completed the victory.
Disasi beat the keeper with a header after a corner that was whipped into the near post, and the home team quickly equalised when Kyle Walker-Peters laid the ball back from the byline, and Aribo was there to finish it off.
Joe Lumley, the goalie, made a bad pass out to middle while he was well out of his zone.
Madueke of Chelsea grabbed it, then gave it to Nkunku, who scored into the empty goal.
Joao Felix’s pass to Madueke out wide on the edge of the box gave Chelsea the lead.
Madueke cut inside and fired his effort into the far bottom corner.
When Stephens lost his temper and yanked Cucurella’s hair during a corner kick, Southampton’s problems were made worse.
The defender was sent out six minutes before halftime.
Chelsea created opportunity after opportunity as they carried over into the second half.
Tosin Adarabioyo slammed a close-range attempt off the upright, and Felix, who was not marked, fired a header wide of the post.
Nkunku’s effort under pressure would have likely gone over the line, but Palmer took no chances and tapped the ball in to give them a fourth goal.
When Chelsea won the title for the third time in a row, Sancho grabbed a feed from Malo Gusto and hammered his goal past Lumley as the home crowd was already leaving.
