Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhüttl appears to be pretty pleased with Chelsea suffering setbacks over the last week.
It has been a difficult week for Chelsea, who suffered a shock home defeat to Brentford last week before losing 3-1 to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final.
The Blues are now staring down the barrel of a season that could end without particularly good efforts in either of the Premier League or the Champions League.
Third place appears inevitable in the Premier League, despite the Blues being fancied for a title charge this season, and a Champions League exit is now looking likely ahead of next week’s second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Southampton are Chelsea’s next opponents, and ahead of this weekend’s clash, Saints boss Hasenhüttl has admitted to taking some pleasure in the Blues’ defeats.
That’s not because it’s Chelsea, but simply because big clubs aren’t often rocked by ‘lesser opposition’ like Brentford, and that gives clubs like Southampton encouragement.
“It’s interesting that such a team was a little bit affected by the home loss against Brentford, you could feel it,” he told the Southampton official website. “They were not so confident with everything they did.
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“But that’s a good thing to see that also big teams are struggling sometimes. The bad thing is that this doesn’t happen very often.
“I think even if they win this game [against Real Madrid] 3-0 and have the next game on Tuesday against them, I know that the Saturday game is very important for them.”