Ralph Hasenhuttl believes that Chelsea's defeat to Brentford led to some confidence issues in their clash against Real Madrid. However, the Saints boss conceded that having Karim Benzema to call upon certainly helped Carlo Ancelotti's team.
The Blues have conceded seven goals in their last two games, leaving Thomas Tuchel with some problems to solve ahead of the trip to St Mary's. The Blues boss acknowledged some tactical issues in the display but noted there must be a deeper reason for aspects of their displays against the Bees and the Spanish giants.
Hasenhuttl is still preparing for the best Chelsea has to offer, but knowing that Tuchel will be critical to try and force a reaction out of the Stamford Bridge side. Nevertheless, he believes it's a good thing to see big teams struggle.
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The Austrian coach said in his press conference: "That you need a player like [Karim] Benzema to play against them. I think Real Madrid are a very good side. Surprisingly good that they play in this way. The way they [Chelsea] played in the first half isn't good enough for the Champions League. Thomas [Tuchel] knows this. The team also looked like they were affected by the home loss to Brentford. You could feel it. Not so confident with everything they do.
"It's a good thing to see that the big teams are struggling sometimes. The bad thing is that this doesn't happen very often. So, as I know them and how they work, he [Tuchel] will be very critical of them and will try to find a reaction.
I always expect the most difficult opponent, even if they win this game 3-0 and have the next game against them, that's important for them also, and a Premier League game against Chelsea is always important to us, especially as I know it's not easy coming here. I think it will be a tough game, tough fight, and we'll try to make it as tough for them as possible."
Hasenhuttl does not take too much confidence of his own from Chelsea's form. The 54-year-old takes more heart from the Saints' Carabao Cup defeat against the Blues. Southampton matched Chelsea's 3-4-4 on that occasion, and penalties were required to separate the sides.
The Saints boss said: "No, it doesn't make any difference. You don't have to look at the results before, there's a lot of quality in the team, and there's a lot of success in the past, and it's normal that sometimes coming into games, they are running a little against you.
We mustn't concentrate on Chelsea, and we must concentrate on us and the last games where we did some good stuff against them. We have to focus on this task. We have to concentrate and try to make it even better because the last game in the Cup was a draw, and then we lost in a penalty shootout, but you could see that this was a way of football that worked against them."
