Chelsea began their defence of the FA Cup with a 5-1 win away to Southampton this afternoon.
The Saints took a surprise lead in the 21st minute through Jay Rodriguez, but a brace from Demba Ba on his Chelsea debut helped the Blues run out comfortable victors in the end.
Victor Moses, Branislav Ivanovic and Frank Lampard also found the net for the visitors as they made it into the fourth round for the 20th year in a row.
Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at another FA Cup success for Chelsea.
Match statistics:
Southampton:
Shots 7
On target 5
Possession 43%
Corners 4
Fouls 7
Chelsea:
Shots 15
On target 12
Possession 57%
Corners 8
Fouls 9
Was the result fair?
Most certainly. The first half was a pretty even affair, and Southampton may have felt unlucky to have gone in 2-1 down, but the second half was one-way traffic. Chelsea found their rhythm in a way that they were unable to in the first 45, while Southampton could do nothing about it and failed to threaten their own spell of dominance.
Southampton's performance
It started well, but got worse as the game wore on. In the first 10 minutes or so they were the better side, and up to perhaps the 25-minute mark completely stopped Chelsea playing, while grabbing a goal of their own. After the goal, however, they failed to really threaten again, except for one glorious Turnbull double save. The second half looked more like a training exercise.
Chelsea's performance
Pretty much a reverse of Southampton's. Slow and sluggish in the opening stages, the hosts' goal seemed to spark them into life. They were, perhaps, lucky to go into the break with a lead, but whatever Rafael Benitez said to them at half time clearly worked as there was only one team in it after the interval.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Juan Mata: The Spaniard is one of the most majestic players in English football at the moment, and he showed sparks of brilliance today that were sorely missing against QPR. He set up Ba's first and Ivanovic's goal with pieces of quality play and orchestrated the game during his time on the pitch. Ba should also get a mention for two goals on his debut.
Referee performance
On the whole, good. It wasn't a tough game to referee, and that was shown by the small number of cards handed out by Mike Dean. The big decision - the penalty - he got wrong, however. The ball appeared to strike Steven Davis's chest, not his hand, which didn't make a great deal of difference to the result, but could have been crucial if the match had been closer.
Biggest gaffe
Well, probably that refereeing decision! Dean didn't have much to do, but when called into his action he spent a long time thinking about it before making the wrong decision.
What next?
Southampton: It's straight back to Premier League action for Southampton as they travel to Villa Park to face fellow strugglers Aston Villa next Saturday.
Chelsea: Chelsea, meanwhile, continue their cup adventures with the first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Swansea on Wednesday.
Barney Corkhill
