Lampard delighted as Chelsea thump Southampton: A nice afternoon

Chelsea cruised to victory at Southampton.

Chelsea dominated from the outset and took the lead when Tammy Abraham's looping finish from Callum Hudson-Odoi's pass was adjudged to have crossed the line before Maya Yoshida's intervention.

Mason Mount doubled the Blues' lead from close range, before Danny Ings poked home Yan Valery's cut-back to reduce the arrears.

The visitors restored their two-goal advantage five minutes before half-time, N'Golo Kante's strike from the edge of the area taking a wicked deflection off Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg on its way past Angus Gunn.

Two second-half substitutes combined to set up Chelsea's fourth, Michy Batshuayi slotting home Christian Pulisic's through-ball to put the seal on a comfortable victory for Frank Lampard's side.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said: "I didn't think we started that well, even though doing so had been something we'd talked about before. The goal came at the right time and after that I felt pretty comfortable. Getting four away from home - we're scoring - so it's a nice afternoon.

"Tammy's [Abraham] performance was great, his all-round performance and his work off the ball. But I must say I thought Willian was immense - he is an example in what he was doing on and off the ball. He's a leader - not one that shouts - but in how he performs.

"Let's not get carried away, it's a long season and we feel we might have picked up more points than we've actually got. We've not been at our absolute best and we can be a lot better. We shouldn't be sloppy, at 2-0 we should go 3-0. We're scoring goals, great, but can we tighten up? Yes."

On Callum Hudson-Odoi, he added: "I liked a lot of the stuff he did, there's competition in those wide areas now. I thought it was a really good performance, really bright stuff, I'm disappointed he didn't get his goal."