Forward Timo Werner and Ben Chilwell struck goals in the 84th and 89th minute respectively to earn three points for Chelsea, taking them on top of the Premier League table. The Blues defeated a 10-man Southampton 3-1 at the Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

It was defender Trevoh Chalobah’s header that gave Chelsea the lead in the ninth minute. Chilwell upended former Chelsea academy star Tino Livramento in the box and James Ward-Prowse scored an equalizer for Southampton from the penalty spot in the 61st minute. The goal scorer was then sent off in the 77th minute for a late, lunging tackle on Jorginho.

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Chelsea were coming off back-to-back losses against Manchester City in the league and Juventus in the Champions League and Werner and Chilwell made sure the team didn’t score the hattrick. 

Ward-Prowse converted the spot kick to threaten Chelsea’s ambitions of moving into first place, only for Werner to turn in Cesar Azpilicueta’s first-time cross to spark celebrations of relief in the 85th minute.

Chilwell then atoned for conceding the penalty by lashing in the third in the 89th, moments after Romelu Lukaku and then Azpilicueta struck the same post.

Chelsea had two goals ruled out. Thomas Tuchel was booked for his excessive touchline protests, and the Chelsea manager even ended up nose-to-nose with Atkinson as tempers threatened to boil over.

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“It was absolutely a deserved victory. We played a good match of football, an entertaining match of football because Southampton played strong. But we did everything today, in my opinion, to deserve the win,” manager Thomas Tuchel said after the match. 

“We got late goals, we could’ve scored earlier, we could’ve finished the game in the first half but it’s like this. We deserved to win”

Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Everton teed up the chance for Chelsea to climb to the summit and, after a testing and often tetchy game, Thomas Tuchel’s team obliged.

With inputs from the Associated Press