Chelsea
will again be without captain John Terry for their trip to Southampton on
Saturday.
The 35-year-old suffered a hamstring injury in the 5-1 win over Newcastle
and Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink is reluctant to rush him back.
"We want to be careful with this kind of injury," he said. "When you have
something in the tendon or in the hamstring then sometimes you think, as a
player or manager, that it appears to be good, but you must be careful.
"I am in favour of waiting two or three days more because it's not good to
have a setback. We have Norwich on Tuesday and we will see whether he will
be available and fit."
Chelsea are unbeaten in the Premier League under Hiddink but face a
Southampton side who not conceded in over nine hours.
They have won five of their last six matches and were 3-1 winners at
Stamford Bridge earlier in the season.
Team news
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman is without the suspended Victor Wanyama
but otherwise has a near fully-fit squad from which to choose.
His only absentees are Florin Gardos and Jay Rodriguez, though both are back
in training and expected to return imminently, once they are again fully
fit.
Chelsea remain without Terry so Branislav Ivanovic is likely to continue in
central defence, with Baba Rahman at left-back.
Hiddink is also without Kurt Zouma, who will miss the remainder of the
season because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury, while Alexandre Pato
and Radamel Falcao are also out, respectively owing to a lack of match
fitness and a groin injury.
Opta stats
Southampton have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 11 Premier
League games against Chelsea.
Chelsea have won four and lost just one of their seven Premier League trips
to St Mary's.
Diego Costa has scored seven goals in his last eight Premier League
appearances.
Southampton have gone nine hours and 14 minutes since they last conceded a
Premier League goal.
Ronald Koeman has the best win percentage of any Southampton manager in
Premier League history (45.3 per cent).
Guus Hiddink has lost just one of 22 Premier League matches as boss of
Chelsea (W14 D7 L1)
Merson's prediction
Chelsea took a bit of a pasting when these two sides met in the reverse
fixture but they've turned things around since then. This will be a good
test to see how far they've come.
Southampton have looked solid and kept a few clean sheets in recent weeks.
It's a very hard game to call as I don't see too much between the sides.
I'll go for a 1-1 draw with Gary Cahill scoring the first goal.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-1 (Sky Bet Odds 5/1)
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