Why Southampton are 'quite excited' to play Chelsea despite winning just one Premier League game this season

Southampton boss Russell Martin is relishing the challenge of facing high-flying Chelsea despite their slow start in the Premier League this season.

After promotion back to the top-flight this term, Southampton's main objective is to avoid immediate relegation to the Championship. Currently, the Saints are bottom of the league having only accumulated five points from their first 13 matches.

Southampton's only league win this term came against Everton in a narrow 1-0 victory last month at St. Mary's.

Their next test comes against Chelsea, who have won their last three matches in all competitions, and with Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling all suspended, as well as Lesley Ugochukwu out (ineligible to face his parent club) and Aaron Ramsdale continuing his recovery from injury, Southampton are huge underdogs to claim even a point on Wednesday night.

"We have to accept we're missing some key players but we also have a lot of trust in the players we have," admitted Martin. "We have big trust in the shape we're going to play because we've done it before.

"We have to adapt, we have to tweak, without losing what we believe in. I'm looking forward to seeing how we cope with that."

Martin is excited at the possibility of having to find alternative solutions to try to beat one of the most in-form teams in the league. They will take confidence into Wednesday's encounter after only narrowly losing 3-2 to league leaders Liverpool last month.

"It's quite exciting trying to work out the best way to accommodate those suspensions and injuries in the same way when we knew others were going to come out."

On Chelsea, Martin continued: "They are really starting to click into gear and to get into flow a bit. Against Aston Villa on the weekend, they were excellent, really outstanding.

"They have some top players but it's how you get them players on the ball and in the areas where you want to. They can do their stuff and they do it regularly."