Good afternoon! Thank you very much for joining Sports Mole for today's Premier League clash between champions Chelsea and Southampton at Stamford Bridge!

The Blues have the chance to move temporarily level with second-placed Manchester United today, but they remain a long way off leaders Manchester City and will now be focusing on securing a place in the top four above all else. Southampton, meanwhile, have been inconsistent of late and are only four points clear of the relegation zone, so victory here would be an unexpected bonus for Mauricio Pellegrino's side.

First things first, though, let's check out the team news from West London...

CHELSEA STARTING XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Cahill; Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso; Willian, Hazard, Pedro

CHELSEA SUBS: Caballero, Rudiger, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Fabregas, Batshuayi, Morata

SOUTHAMPTON STARTING XI: Forster; Cedric, Hoedt, Yoshida, Bertrand; Stephens, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond; Gabbiadini

SOUTHAMPTON SUBS: McCarthy, Davis, Lemina, Van Dijk, Tadic, Boufal, Austin

What can we make of that interesting team news, then?

Well the obvious place to start is the absence of Alvaro Morata from the Chelsea starting XI, which is something of a surprise considering the Spaniard was thought to be fully fit for this match. Indeed, Morata is deemed fit enough to be on the bench, so it appears to be a tactical decision from Antonio Conte to leave his top scorer out once again.

Morata missed the win at Huddersfield through a mixture of fatigue and a back problem, and perhaps Conte is unwilling to risk his main striker from the start again yet.

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Morata's exclusion means that Eden Hazard will once again operate as Chelsea's main striker this afternoon, as he did against Huddersfield in midweek, and the Belgian boasts a decent record against the Saints.

Hazard scored in both meetings last season and has now had a direct hand in five goals from his last seven appearances against Southampton, scoring three times and creating two more.

Alongside Hazard in that front three will be Pedro and Willian, the latter of whom has been linked with a move away from the club in January but once again proved his importance during that win over Huddersfield.

Willian scored one and created two in the 3-1 victory at the John Smith's Stadium, and in his last four starts for Chelsea across all competitions he has now been directly involved in six goals, scoring four and creating two.

Antonio Conte has made just the one change from that win at Huddersfield, and that comes in defence as captain Gary Cahill returns to the starting lineup in place of Antonio Rudiger, who drops back to the bench.

Bakayoko retains his place in midfield after a display Conte described as his best for the club so far against the Terriers, while behind him Christensen once again keeps his place at the heart of the defence, with David Luiz still sidelined by a knee injury.

As for Southampton, Mauricio Pellegrino was expected to make changes following the nature of their 4-1 defeat to Leicester, but the identity of those changes has come as a little bit of a surprise.

The likes of Van Dijk, Tadic and Austin are amongst those to drop out of the starting lineup, with Pellegrino making six changes in all for the trip to the capital. In addition to the aforementioned trio, Lemina, Davis and Boufal also drop out of the team for this one.

Even including Virgil van Dijk, whom Southampton fought so hard to keep at the club during the summer, perhaps the most surprising omission today is Charlie Austin, who has been in good form of late.

The striker drew a blank against Leicester, but he has still scored four goals in his last four games for the Saints and, looking even further back, has netted eight times in his last 12 outings for the club. Manolo Gabbiadini will lead the line in his place today.

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The bulk of the changes have come in midfield today, with Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg and Redmond all coming into the side in place of Tadic, Davis and Boufal.

There is also a slightly unfamiliar role for Jack Stephens, who looks set to play in defensive midfield according to the team sheet released by the Saints. We are more used to seeing him operate as a centre-back - and that could still be the case should Pellegrino opt for three at the back - but the initial impression is that Stephens will play in midfield.

In defence, Cedric does keep his place in the side, having come through the Leicester defeat unscathed on his return from a hamstring injury.

Goalscorer Yoshida and former Chelsea man Bertrand also start at the back once again, but there is a return for Wesley Hoedt, who was not included in the matchday squad for the midweek defeat but is brought straight back into the side in place of Van Dijk here.

Notable omission for both teams, then, but that will not change the favourites for this match, with Chelsea widely expected to run out fairly comfortable winners this afternoon.

The teams below Chelsea in the Premier League table have all dropped points recently, which has helped them to build a small cushion to fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, but it is that battle - rather than the title race - which Antonio Conte will be focused on at the moment.

The 14-point gap to leaders Manchester City looks to be unassailable, particularly with City in such unstoppable form right now, which means that the rest of the top six could well be battling it out for second place over the course of the rest of the season.

It is a battle which Manchester United are currently winning, although a victory for Chelsea here would move them level on points with United until at least tomorrow, when Jose Mourinho's side face West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.

Chelsea go into this match in good form too having won seven of their last nine Premier League games, picking up 22 points from the last 27 on offer in the top flight.

The most recent of those games saw them pick up a 3-1 win at Huddersfield on Tuesday, with Bakayoko, Willian and Pedro all getting on the scoresheet, although last weekend Chelsea did fall to a shock defeat at the hands of West Ham United at the London Stadium - the Hammers' first win under David Moyes.

That London derby loss is Chelsea's only defeat in their last nine games across all competitions, winning six of those to help reach the last 16 of the Champions League and open up a four-point lead over the chasing pack.

The Blues have also been strong here at Stamford Bridge in recent weeks, going seven matches without defeat across all competitions since their 1-0 loss to Manchester City back in September.

Chelsea's most recent home game saw them held to a 1-1 draw by Atletico Madrid 11 days ago - a result which saw them miss out on top spot in their Champions League group - but they have had better fortunes domestically in recent weeks.

Indeed, Chelsea have won their last four Premier League outings in front of their own fans, which is a major improvement on the record of just one win from their opening four home league games of the season, drawing one and losing two of those.

Chelsea actually dropped more points in their opening four home games of this season than they did at Stamford Bridge throughout the entirety of their title-winning 2016-17 campaign, although crucially they have now seemed to rediscover there form here.

Even so, if only home form counted this season then Chelsea would sit down in seventh place, below all of their own top-six rivals and Burnley.

Chelsea's form this season has been something of a disappointment at times, although that has certainly been magnified by Manchester City exploits too. Nonetheless, Conte's boast a very impressive league win percentage of 74.6% during his time in charge of the club, which is higher than any other manager in their history.

Conte has suffered just nine league defeats as Chelsea boss, and all but one of them have come in London.

There is a glimmer of hope for Southampton to get something out of this game, then, but to do so they will need to hope that Chelsea are not at their best and - even more importantly - that they perform a lot better than they did on Wednesday night.

Leicester looked capable of scoring at will during their visit to St Mary's, and helped themselves to four goals as Claude Puel enjoyed a dream game against his former club. The 4-1 defeat was not overly harsh on Southampton either, forcing manager Mauricio Pellegrino to apologise to the fans afterwards.

Leicester fans took great delight in rubbing Southampton's noses in the fact that they had sacked Puel, and in hindsight it looks like being a costly error from the Saints with the Foxes in fine form - at least before today's 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.

Southampton had six points more at this stage of last season under Puel than they currently do under Pellegrino, not to mention being four places better off.

The main complaint regarding Puel was that his style of play was not entertaining enough for Southampton fans, but they have scored exactly the same number of goals in their opening 17 matches this season as they had at the same stage last, averaging a goal per game.

Defensively, though, Southampton had conceded only 16 goals at this stage of last season, whereas this time around they have let in 23, so the Saints appear to be heading in the wrong direction under Pellegrino.

Southampton's current position of 11th is one plenty of teams in the table would take, but every team in the bottom half could easily be dragged into the relegation battle with only four points separating the Saints from the relegation zone.

Indeed, while Southampton may be just one place away from the top half, in terms of points they are equidistant between 10th and 19th in the table, so their season could still very much go either way.

Southampton come into this match without a win in their last four Premier League matches, taking just two points from a possible 12 in that time.

Looking even further back it is now only one win in Southampton's last eight Premier League outings too - with four defeats in that time - which has contributed to their lowest points tally at this stage of a season since 2012-13.

In fairness to Southampton, they have had a pretty torrid run of fixtures lately, facing Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and now Chelsea in the space of just eight games. They will also take on Tottenham and Manchester United before the end of the year, which means that they face all of the 'big six' in a 10-match period.

The Saints have actually fared pretty well in two of those so far, only being denied a draw against City by a last-gasp Sterling winner, and then conceding another late goal to deny them victory against Arsenal.

That Arsenal draw is the only one of those matches which has come at St Mary's too, meaning that in the space of six away games the Saints will have visited Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Southampton are winless in their last five away league games and are yet to score more than one goal in an away game all season, so their hopes of getting much from this match look bleak. Southampton have also only won two of their 40 top-flight matches away to the reigning champions, although the most recent one of those came against Chelsea in 2015. Victory at Leeds in 1970 is the only other occasion they have managed to beat the champions on their own patch.

PREDICTION: Right, we're 10 minutes away from kickoff at Stamford Bridge which means that it is time for a prediction!

Southampton will demand a response to that defeat at the hands of Leicester and proved against Man City and Arsenal that they can put up a fight against the big teams, but I cannot look past a Chelsea win here. Even with Morata on the bench, I'm backing the hosts to have enough for all three points today.

SPORTS MOLE SAYS: Chelsea 2-0 Southampton

Chelsea have won the last three Premier League meetings with Southampton since the defeat at Stamford Bridge in 2015 which I alluded to earlier, when Chelsea were also the reigning champions.

However, that is Chelsea's only loss in their last eight meetings with the Saints, winning five and drawing two in that time, so the Blues have certainly had the better of this fixture in recent years.

Even if a Chelsea win is not guaranteed, you can safely bet on the hosts at least scoring today as Southampton have not kept a clean sheet against the Blues since Boxing Day 2002, almost 15 years ago.

Indeed, that 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge, with Antti Niemi in goal, is Southampton's only clean sheet in their last 24 league games against Chelsea.

The most recent meeting between these two sides came in April when Chelsea ran out 4-2 winners here at Stamford Bridge, with Hazard, Cahill and Costa (2) all on the scoresheet.

Romeu and Bertrand - both against the former club - responded for Southampton, but their second was merely a consolation and by that point Chelsea already had the points wrapped up.

Right, the players are on their way out and it's almost time for kickoff at Stamford Bridge, so let's have a quick recap of the team news...

CHELSEA STARTING XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Cahill; Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso; Willian, Hazard, Pedro

SOUTHAMPTON STARTING XI: Forster; Cedric, Hoedt, Yoshida, Bertrand; Stephens, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Redmond; Gabbiadini

KICKOFF: Here we go then! Eden Hazard gets us underway at Stamford Bridge!

Southampton are pressing high up the pitch in these opening exchanges, looking to prevent Chelsea from playing out from the back and forcing them into a few long balls early on.

Chelsea come roaring forward on a quick counter-attack, with Willian and Pedro leading the charge forward. The momentum soon goes out of the attack with a poor cross from Kante, but that was an example of how quickly Chelsea can break.

UPDATE: The first goal of the afternoon has gone in at Vicarage Road, where Huddersfield have taken a surprise lead against Watford from Elias Kachunga.

A Southampton corner is cleared at the near post and falls to Hoedt, who tries his luck with an ambitious first-time strike from range which is never troubling Courtois.

CLOSE! Southampton are the first to threaten the opening goal! The ball is slipped inside Moses for Bertrand to get on the end of and his low cross into the box is beyond the fingertips of Courtois. Cahill collects it and then just about manages to sort out his feet and poke it away before Ward-Prowse can pounce.

Southampton are temporarily down to 10 men here as Cedric goes clattering into the advertising hoardings and now needs treatment. He looks to be in some pain there, with his foot jarring painfully against the boards.

Cedric hobbles back onto the pitch after a bit of treatment and it looks like he will be fine to continue.

Chelsea are taking a bit of time to settle into this one. They have not been anywhere near their best so far, with Hazard in particular struggling to make his mark.

CHANCE! Lovely football from the hosts as Willian plays a one-two with Alonso, whose return ball is a no-look one which releases the Brazilian inside the area. Willian cuts inside but Yoshida does just about enough to make him delay his shot, and in the end it goes a couple of yards wide.

SOUTHAMPTON SUB: Cedric is not going to be able to continue after all. He limps off to be replaced by Mario Lemina.

Chelsea have posed more of an attacking threat in the past few minutes, and it is no coincidence that Hazard has become more involved too. Hazard leads the latest attack here and it ends up with Bakayoko drilling a powerful strike towards goal which hits Lemina.

Pellegrino will be pretty happy with what he has seen from his side so far. They have responded to that Leicester performance well so far, more than holding their own against the champions in the opening 20 minutes.

SAVE! Chelsea almost take the lead through an unlikely source as Cahill lets fly from range, and his low strike has plenty of movement on it. Forster is only able to parry it straight back out, but there are no Chelsea players following in.

Almost a mix-up between Cahill and Courtois as both want the other to deal with a through-ball, which almost allows Gabbiadini to nip in. Courtois does eventually take charge, though, collecting the ball just before the Southampton striker.

SAVE! Chelsea come forward again as Alonso finds Hazard with a low ball into the box. Southampton are tight to Hazard and prevent him from getting a shot away, but he does play it back to Kante whose deflected strike is kept out by Forster.

UPDATE: Arsenal have taken the lead against Newcastle through an exquisite Mesut Ozil, while Huddersfield are now two goals to the good against Watford, with Aaron Mooy doubling their lead at Vicarage Road.

Dancing feet from Pedro and then Willian, but Southampton hold firm. Hazard is popping up all over the pitch to receive the ball too, with that front three proving to be very fluid so far.

CHANCE! Crucial defending from Bertrand! Stephens loses the ball on the halfway line and Chelsea immediately pounce, with Hazard carrying the ball into the box. His pass is just too far in front of Pedro but then looks set to arrive at Willian's feet before Bertrand gets a crucial toe to the ball.

SAVE! Alonso tries his luck with a snapshot after good work from Willian, but Forster is alert and turns it past the post for a corner. Most were expecting Alonso to just drop the ball back to Hazard, but he instead went for goal himself.

Half a shout for a Chelsea penalty as Christensen goes down inside the box when trying to get on the end of Hazard's cross. Romeu did have a hand on the defender, but it would have been a very soft penalty.

UPDATE: No further goals to update you on, but there have been substantial developments elsewhere, with Troy Deeney being sent off for Watford and Brighton's Glenn Murray missing a penalty against Burnley.

Chelsea have had one or two moments in this match and Forster has been the busier of the two keepers, but Southampton will be pleased with how this first half has gone so far. They are looking quite comfortable right now.

SHOT! Another crucial piece of defensive work from Southampton as this time Romeu blocks Bakayoko's powerful strike to send it behind for a corner. Willian had done well to tee Bakayoko up, but Southampton were quick to react to the danger.

Chelsea have Southampton pinned back into their own half at the moment as they push for that opening goal before half time, but they are lacking a focal point at the moment.

OFF THE POST! Chelsea are inches away from getting that opening goal through Pedro! The striker bundles through a couple of challenges, including a poor one from Lemina, before releasing his shot and seeing it deflect against the near post.

There will be two minutes of added time at the end of this first half.

YELLOW CARD! Yoshida picks up the game's first yellow card for a lunging challenge on Hazard from behind. No complaints with that one.

Everyone is expecting Willian to go for goal from the resulting free kick, but Alonso takes Forster by surprise to sneak a fine effort into the bottom corner.

The Spaniard bends his free kick around the wall and it is perfectly placed into the bottom corner to beat Forster. The Southampton keeper should have done better, though, as he was slow to react and didn't get across goal quick enough.

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The referee brings an end to the first half at Stamford Bridge, and what an end to the half it was for Chelsea too.

The champions were slow to get settled and Southampton would have been delighted with their own performance until the dying seconds of the first half, when Chelsea finally broke the deadlock.

Marcos Alonso is the man to have scored the only goal of the game so far, bending in a pinpoint free kick beyond the end of the two indicated additional minutes.

Despite the perfect placement of his strike, Fraser Forster should have done better as he was slow to react and get across to the ball. The Southampton keeper may have been expecting Willian to go for goal and then was probably unsighted as Alonso went around the wall, but he still should have done better.

Chelsea had come closest to breaking the deadlock before that goal, with Pedro hitting the post. The Spaniard needed a bit of luck to bundle his way into the box, although Lemina should have done better with his challenge, and Pedro's strike then took a deflection.

Forster looked like he would have been beaten at his near post by the deflection, but fortunately for him he was saved by the woodwork.

Forster has certainly been the busier of the two goalkeepers, but Southampton have held their own for the most part.

At the very least the Saints have certainly improved from their midweek defeat to Leicester, which is a positive to take for Pellegrino so far. Southampton have not scored more than one goal in any away game so far this season, though, so they have plenty of work to do to get back into this match.

KICKOFF: Southampton get us back underway for the second half at Stamford Bridge.

Quick break from Chelsea down the left flank as Pedro races forward and lifts the ball over to Hazard, but Southampton scramble back and Yoshida gets an important challenge in on the Belgian.

SHOT! Willian has looked really sharp at times today. He skips past three Southampton players here to move into shooting range, but then gets his finish all wrong and skews it well off target.

UPDATE: Things are going from bad to worse for 10-man Watford at Vicarage Road - they are now 3-0 down against Huddersfield courtesy of a Laurent Depoitre strike.

Shambolic defending from Southampton as a catalogue of errors sees them fail to clear the ball when under no real pressure. Nothing comes of it, but they certainly don't need to invite pressure on themselves like that.

SHOT! Azpilicueta is the latest to try his luck here, but his 25-yard effort flies high and wide of the target.

Chelsea have been on top in the opening 10 minutes of this second half as they push for a second goal, but Southampton have just managed to stem the tide in the last couple of minutes. This is a much-needed spell of possession for the visitors.

It will be interesting to see whether Pellegrino makes some attacking changes in the final half an hour here, and if so how early he does. As things stand they are still in this game, but if they are to get anything out of it then they need more of an attacking threat.

UPDATE: The match between Stoke and West Ham was delayed for an hour due to an electrical problem, but it is well underway now and West Ham have taken the lead through a Mark Noble penalty.

SOUTHAMPTON SUB: Gabbiadini has endured a pretty thankless task today, and he is replaced by Charlie Austin here.

CHANCE! Southampton almost reap immediate rewards from the change! Hojbjerg plays the ball through for Austin, who finds himself with only the keeper to beat, but Courtois does well to deny the striker. Moments later Courtois collects the ball right on the edge of the box, which Southampton think is outside, but the referee allows play to continue.

It has been better from Southampton since Austin's introduction, with Chelsea have just let their own standards slip a little in the last couple of minutes. This match is still very much up for grabs with 25 minutes remaining.

UPDATE: It is now 10 men apiece at Vicarage Road, with Jonathan Hogg seeing red for Huddersfield against Watford.

Good defending from Yoshida as he throws himself in the way of Hazard's shot after the Belgian had done well to work himself space to shoot.

CHELSEA SUB: Chelsea make their first change of the afternoon as Cesc Fabregas replaces Pedro.

DISALLOWED GOAL! Chelsea have the ball in the back of the net, and it is a really good goal too, but it is disallowed for offside. Hazard exchanged passes with Fabregas before tucking a very neat finish into the bottom corner, but Fabregas was marginally offside.

SAVE! Alonso looks to double his personal tally in style, doing very well to collect a ball on his chest before firing a half-volley towards goal from outside the area which Forster needs to parry away.

SOUTHAMPTON SUB: A third and final change for the visitors sees Sofiane Boufal replace Hojbjerg.

CHELSEA SUB: Hazard's afternoon is over here as he is replaced by Alvaro Morata for the final 15 minutes or so.

CHANCES! Almost an immediate impact from Morata as he collects a pass from Fabregas before twisting and turning inside the box to create space to shoot. The angle is against Morata and Forster denies him at the near post, before Alonso nods another chance wide at the back post.

CHANCE! Southampton go straight up the other end and almost level things up! Once again it is Austin who threatens, but Courtois makes the save before Hoedt drags a deflected effort wide from the resulting corner.

CLOSE! Chelsea take a free kick really quickly as Willian pokes it through to Fabregas. The Spaniard reaches the byline but looks to have lost control of the ball before just poking it past Forster from an impossible angle. The ball rolls agonisingly right across the line, but there are no blue shirts there to tap it in.

Just 10 minutes remaining in this match now and still Chelsea's lead is just the one goal. Southampton have had those two Austin chances in this second half which will have just given them a glimmer of belief that they can still get something out of this game.

CHELSEA SUB: A third and final change for Chelsea as Moses is replaced by Davide Zappacosta.

The possession in this game has actually been quite even, but Chelsea will kick themselves if they don't take all three points from the game. They have created far more chances than their visitors, but as yet have been unable to kill them off.

CHANCE! Half a chance for Southampton to nick an equaliser as Austin darts to the front post to latch on to a low Stephens cross, but he can't steer his effort on target.

YELLOW CARDS! Redmond picks up a late yellow card for a shove on Morata, and he is swiftly joined in the book by Stephens for dissent.

There will be four minutes of stoppage time at the end of this match.

SAVE! Azpilicueta tries to add a second as he sweeps an effort towards goal from the edge of the box which Forster needs to save.

CHANCE! Another late chance for Chelsea as Morata lifts the ball into the path of Fabregas, whose volley is parried wide by Forster.

The referee brings an end to proceedings at Stamford Bridge, then, and it is Chelsea who come away with all three points courtesy of Marcos Alonso's first-half free kick.

The win lifts Chelsea up to joint-second in the table, although still behind Manchester United on goal difference and 11 points adrift of Manchester City. Southampton can be pleased with a lot of what they did today, but ultimately it is now five games without a win for the Saints.

Right, that is all we have time for this afternoon!

Thank you very much for joining Sports Mole for today's game as Chelsea edge past Southampton at Stamford Bridge! I will leave you with our match report, and be sure to stick around for reaction from all of the 3pm kickoffs. From me, though, it is goodbye for now!