Torres was the owner of the opening goal in the 60th minute, but the most important key that helped Chelsea score a 3-0 victory yesterday lay in Mourinho’s timely personnel adjustments.

Oscar entered the field and made his mark in all three scoring situations to help Chelsea win.

Oscar was the one who indirectly gave Torres the opportunity to break the deadlock, before Willian affirmed Chelsea’s advantage by increasing the score to 2-0.

Round 20

Wednesday, January 1, 2014Swansea 2-3 Man City

(Bony 45 & 90 – Fernandinho 14, Yaya Toure 58, Kolarov 66)Arsenal 2-0 Cardiff

(Bendtner 88, Walcott 90)Crystal Palace 1-1 Norwich

(Puncheon pen 44 – Johnson 39)Fulham 2-1 West Ham

(Sidwell 32, Berbatov 66 – Diame 7′)Liverpool 2-0 Hull Tigers

(Agger 36, Suarez 50)Southampton 0-3 Chelsea

(Torres 60, Willian 71, Oscar 82)Stoke 1-1 Everton

(Assaidi 49 – Baines pen 90)Sunderland 0-1 Aston Villa

(Agbonlahor 15)West Brom 1-0 Newcastle

(Berahino pen 87)Man Utd 1-2 Tottenham

(Welbeck 67 – Adebayor 34, Eriksen 66)

This victory helped Chelsea earn 10 points out of the maximum 12 points during the marathon period from before Christmas to the beginning of the new year.

The fact that Chelsea had to wait until the second half, with Mourinho’s adjustments, to be able to deal with the opponent more or less created the feeling that they were struggling a bit.

To prevent his students from being exhausted by the high density of competition, Mourinho made six changes to the starting lineup compared to the win over Liverpool in round 19 on December 29.

The trio of defenders Hazard, Mata and Schurrle played very flexibly behind Torres and this was the basis for Chelsea to create a series of opportunities in the first half.

Chelsea squandered many opportunities in the first half.

Unable to take advantage of those opportunities, Chelsea suffered a heart attack at the beginning of the second half.

The presence of this duo has brought new vitality to Chelsea’s front line, where Oscar maximizes his smart moves, while Willian enhances his technical quality.

11 minutes later, it was Oscar who made a strong impression with the ball from the left, passing two Southampton players before passing it across to Willian, who controlled it for a moment and then shot from the edge of the penalty area, increasing the score to 2.

Southampton has nothing to lose, pushing the team higher in search of an equalizer and this is an opportunity for Chelsea to demonstrate their forte of counter-attacking defense.

* Match videos.

The Southampton phenomenon has been decoded.

Squad:

Southampton: Davis – Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw (Clyne 46) – Ramirez, Davis (Ward-Prowse 76), Cork (Lambert 60), Schneiderlin, Lallana – Rodriguez.

Subs not used: Gazzaniga, Yoshida, Hooiveld, Gallagher.

Yellow card: Ramirez, Cork, Lovren, Clyne.

Chelsea: Cech – Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry, A Cole – Ramires, Mikel – Mata (Oscar 53), Hazard (Essien 85), Schurrle (Willian 53) – Torres.

Subs not used: Schwarzer, Ba, Eto’o, Kalas.

Yellow card: Oscar.

Goals: Torres 60, Willian 71, Oscar 82.

Referee: Martin Atkinson 8.

Phuong Minh