22/11/2003  Southampton 0 Chelsea 1
 
Mario Melchiot's first goal for 18 months was enough to give Chelsea a fourth straight Barclaycard Premiership victory at Southampton in a match overshadowed by the growing speculation linking Saints manager Gordon Strachan with Leeds United.

Melchiot struck just after the break to silence a club record 32,149 crowd who voiced their fears that Strachan could be tempted to return to Elland Road, where he won the title as a player in 1992, despite the huge financial uncertainties at the Premiership's bottom club.

Saints chairman Rupert Lowe steadfastly denies there has been any official approach from Leeds but Strachan has so far remained ominously silent about the issue, and Southampton's fans fear the worst.

This was a clash of the Premiership's best attack against its best defence, and Melchiot's 48th-minute winner was well-deserved, but it was not all one-way traffic, and Kevin Phillips missed a glorious chance to equalise in the dying moments.

Saints top scorer James Beattie was absent with a calf muscle injury, meaning a recall for Brett Ormerod up front. Danny Higginbotham started only his fourth game of the season with Michael Svensson serving a ban for being sent off at Bolton.

Chelsea named Wayne Bridge in their starting line-up and also gave a rare start to Mario Melchiot in defence with Marcel Desailly still out with a hip problem.

Eidur Gudjohnsen partnered Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink up front after choosing not to compete in Iceland's clash with Mexico, and there was a starting berth for Joe Cole, who scored for England against Denmark last weekend.

Chelsea went into the match on a run of three successive Barclaycard Premiership victories, the latest of which was a 5-0 demolition of Newcastle, and they started confidently with a good spell of possession.

By contrast, the home side had just one win in their last six league games and had already lost as many matches here this season as they did in the whole of their last campaign.

Phillips has struggled to recapture his goalscoring form this season, but he was the first to forge a real chance as early as the third minute, capitalising on a slip by William Gallas to fire into the side-netting.

He followed up moments later with a shot straight at Carlo Cudicini, but Damien Duff then shaved the upright at the other end with a sharp shot from a neat set-up by Hasselbaink.

The cheers were soon ringing around St Mary's for manager Strachan, so heavily linked with a move north this week. He is reportedly interested in the job vacated by the sacked Peter Reid, but there is no doubt the Southampton faithful want him to stay.

The visitors were denied a good shout for a penalty when Cole was bundled over inside the penalty area after exchanging passes with Gudjohnsen, but Ormerod should have done better with a header at the far post from Graeme Le Saux's left-wing cross on 27 minutes, directing the ball well over the crossbar.

The deadlock was finally broken by an unlikely source, Melchiot giving the visitors the lead on 48 minutes at the conclusion of a move lethal in its simplicity.

Hasselbaink received Lampard's pass and hit a cushioned through-ball into the flying defender's path, and Melchiot kept his cool to finish low to the far corner with a right-foot shot which seemed to squirm under goalkeeper Antti Niemi.

Strachan was by now an anxious figure by his dug-out, but it was his opposite number who made the first change, throwing on Jesper Gronkjaer for the tiring Cole.

Only three players have scored a league goal for Southampton this season, and without Beattie they looked short on firepower.

Higginbotham saved them from going further behind when he cleared Duff's dangerous low left-wing cross off his own goalline after a slick pass from Lampard.

Strachan threw on David Prutton, Anders Svensson and Agustin Delgado in a desperate bid to get something out of the game, and his side should have grabbed an equaliser.

Phillips was all alone at the far post when a searching right-wing cross from Fabrice Fernandes found him with four minutes left, but the Saints striker inexplicably fired a header wide from eight yards out.

A minute later, Fernandes shaved the crossbar with a first-time left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area and suddenly Chelsea were rocking, but it was not enough.