This was a game that threw up a few questions for Saints fans that need a few answers and fast.

The latest defeat for Saints against a Big Six club highlighted the gap that now exists between that elite group and the rest of the Premier league and beyond, five of that group are barely dropping a point this season unless they play each other, whilst the sixth, Manchester United although in complete disarray are still in 8th place only 5 points behind Spurs in 5th.

This tells us how much football has moved on even in the two years since we ourselves finished in the top six and Leicester won the League, things might look the same on the surface but under that veneer it has changed greatly and continues to change as that big six develop bigger income streams.

Chelsea spent £71 million on Kepa and he showed why with two great saves that meant his side were not going to face any mishaps in the final minutes, they also spent £57 million roughly Saints spent in the transfer window on Jorginho and that highlights the gulf and the need to spend money wisely, more of that later.

So Mark Hughes had to try and combat a Chelsea side who had won every game this season bar two both draws, he made changes that the crowd have been demanding, the return of Yoshida, a change of formation, yet the result remains the same.

There were those Saints fans screaming for Saints to get forward and press them, but that perhaps would have been suicide, Chelsea are an outstanding passing side with quick feet and the ability to hit you hard and fast on the break, to even get a point of them you have to be prepared to work hard, get behind the ball and take your chances when they come.

This is the sort of tactic employed by Bournemouth in every game, short bursts of effective attacking.

In truth Hughes system worked, yes we didn't see much of the ball and spent a lot of time chasing it in our own half, but it was us who should have taken the lead when Danny Ings volleyed over from close range, he really should have buried that shot.

But despite getting nothing from the ref we battles gamely, this was a much better performance than the previous two in terms of effort, but ultimately we paid the price by once again a lapse in concentration when Hojbjerg lost the ball in a dangerous position and we paid the price on the half hour mark.

Hughes made a change at half time when he took off Bednarek and brought on Romeu and Saints seemed to perk up a bit, again Bertrand should really have equalised when unmarked at the far post and again we paid the price soon after when poor marking cost us another goal.

But we didn't give up and had two long range efforts that Kepa had to excel to keep out and we really didn't deserve to concede a third in the last minute of injury time.

There were things to take from this game and things that are still very poor and that includes our marking at the back, I hoped that the inclusion of Yoshida would add some drive into the back four and although there was increased effort especially in the way we threw ourselves into the tackle, the fact was that we were no better in marking up and organising ourselves than in any other game this season.

This brings us to the root cause of the problem we have, those who rant about Krueger & Reed are way off the mark, the club is well run, we spent big in the transfer window, but we dont appear to have spent well.

Chelsea signed two players in the summer, they are playing a big part in Chelsea's fine start to the season, yet of the £55 million or so we spent in the summer, not of those four players had a singe minute of game time on the pitch yesterday, Ok Angus Gunn is a keeper and one for the future, but of the other three only Vestergaard made the bench and that is a concern.

Perhaps it is time to focus on the root cause of what is wrong at the club, it is not rotten to the core, Gao has done nothing wrong, Krueger has overseen a transformation that has made us self sufficient just as Markus Liebherr always intended us to be.

Our problem is easy to isolate, it is recruitment and that means Ross Wilson as head of recruitment and Less Reed as head of football who seems to have taken his foot off the gas.

The problem has been this last year, two years ago our major signings have largely come good, Hojbjerg, Redmond & McCarthy, but since then it has been patchy, Lemina & Hoedt have done a job but not excelled or found consistency, but they have potential, but then comes Bouffal & Carrillo a combined fee of around £36 million and both out on loan.

Then there is Manolo Gabbiadini, £15 million, some vital goals yes, but not enough and if Shane Long s criticised for his scoring record then it should be noted that in the last 12 months he has exactly the same as Gabiadini and that is two.

Our signings this summer have been no better than what we have Armstrong and Elyounoussi looked good against lightweight opposition pre season but have struggled in the Premier league and Jannik Vestergaard seems all at sea, against Chelsea Mark Hughes seemed to prefer a crocked Hoedt to a fit Vestergaard for the final minutes.

We still have a good squad, the issue is still central defence as it has been for two years now, we know the answer is not Yoshida and Stephens, to be blunt they might be "one of our own " etc etc, but they are not good enough, problem is we can't seem to sign anyone who is much better.

So to scream about worst performances ever is just knee jerk reaction, Chelsea did to us what they have done to everyone else, if we had played against Wolves as we did against Chelsea we might well have got a point or more, we now need to go to Bournemouth and show our fight and determination, this season is not going to be determined by games against the Big Six it's the games against the rest that will count.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 22:38 - Oct 8 I find Nick's article so littered with opinions which are clearly wrong - just a few observations. Recruitment is a problem at the Club these days, but it is not the only problem!! Hoedt and Long are not good players as you claim. Your vendetta against Yoshida (who didn't play well on Sunday) and support for Hoedt who is consistently a liability make your articles increasingly laughable. I thought the second half performance on Sunday was quite good - once Hughes brought Romeu on to partner Hojbjerg and Lemina we were able to play higher up the park. Three man midfields against the better teams are a must.

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BoondockSaint added 22:59 - Oct 8 Agree with all the above about the mismanagement of the team. The worrying thing is that situations like this tend to snowball. When a team is on the way up, quality players and managers want to come to the team, contribute to it's success and be part of it's glory. Not just for personal satisfaction, but to leave their mark on the sport. Sadly the reverse is also true. If a club is in decline, talented players and managers want to get out as fast as they can, and high quality players and managers don't want to come to a club that could have a detrimental effect on their careers. Even sadder is the fact that NO ONE in ownership or management seems to care! Picture other teams (in other sports as well) in the same predicament--You would hear some one speaking out---managers complaining about players or lack of proper signings----owners telling players to pull up their bootstraps and get on with it----players ranting about lack playing time, or playing in the wrong position (and making the most of it when they got it to embarrass the manager/owners)! What to we get????? The sound of crickets in the night!

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dirk_doone added 23:32 - Oct 8 For those who bleat, it's not fair, we can't hope to compete with the top 6, I'd like to point out that one of the top 6 is Bournemouth but you are probably right theirs is a far better run club than ours with a better manager and owners. Some results so far this season: West Ham 3 Man Utd 1 West Ham 0 Chelsea 0 Wolves 1 Man City 1 Man Utd 1 Wolves 1 Watford 2 Spurs 1 We used to get results like that but everyone at the club now seems to have given up and settled for 2nd best: 17th place if we're lucky and relegation if we're not. Make no mistake about it, our club is currently poorly owned and managed but it has the potential to do so much better with better management and recruitment. Right now, the club is full of very expensive dead wood, from top to bottom, including Kat, Gao, Les, Ralph, Hughes and most of the players. The board have got rid of the people who really brought us success, the managers, coaches, scouts and players, and tried to claim the credit for themselves. As for player performance, the worst performers seem to be the ones we've spent a fortune on in the last 2 or 3 years. About 100 million has been wasted on players who aren't up to Premier League standard, often because they are simply too slow to play at this level. That is pathetically incompetent recruitment. That's why we can't compete with the top teams like we used to 3 ago. Almost exactly 3 years ago we beat a Chelsea side with Hazard et al 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. Since then our board has seen off the manager we had then, Koeman, and most of the players who played that day, Pelle, Fonte, Tadic, Wanyama, van Dijk, Mane etc, and wasted any money we got for them on duds like Pellegrino, Hughes, Carrillo, Boufal, Elyounoussi, Hoedt and Vestergaard.

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davidargyll added 07:28 - Oct 9 Were some of you watching the same game as me? I’m amazed at some of the comments. In a nutshell we couldn’t get a foot on the ball for the first twenty minutes or so because Chelsea were very good! And then suddenly we get a bit of confidence and woohoo we nearly score. Yes we had no luck but the fact that Chelsea Liverpool etc all win is because they are always in your face. They run and run and break you down force you into errors. And even when you get a break it doesn’t stop them playing. And they just keep coming at you. We are not in the same classs and we just have to live with it. I think MH is a lousy manager but even he can only use what he’s got. But, if we are to stick with him he’s got to get the squad at the oppo. One thing I always judge a good team by is when there is a pass back by the oppo to the keeper. A top team will chase it down and almost invariably won’t get the ball but quite often causes a mistake by the keeper and or the backs. Do saints do that? No. A small thing but if MH could just tell his forwards to do that one simple thing who knows. We just might get more on the front foot. The defence is all over the place but then are we much worse than others in the bottom half? In summary I really don’t think we were too bad on Sunday and funnily enough I feel that we just might get going now but MH does need a break and some luck. I also have a slight suspicion that some of the squad oddly enough after 8 games in don’t look 100% fit. Is that bad coaching of lack of commitment? Hmmm time will tell..,

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underweststand added 09:01 - Oct 9 Defending our " bad buys" is a favourite topic on here and probably not without cause. To give the total blame to the Board is somewhat unfair, as they are there to support the manager and they agree deals based on the managers faith in the player. NOTE: so far MH hasn't requested the transfer of any of his former Stoke players .(!) When you take on a new manager, you expect him to bring in one of two of his former players who he wants in the squad, and the Board give their support by buying them. The main problem nowadays is that the price of players has gone throught the roof and even reserves from "bigger" teams can cost £20 million +. Carrillo was the Board's last gasp attempt to help Pellegrino. It can also be recalled that Claude Puel was familiar with Boufal from France and thought he was the answer. Koeman was well versed with the likes of Tadic and Pelle from the Dutch league and they were both very good investments, although his treatment of Sadio Mane in his early days was disgusting to say the least , and it's a wonder Mane stayed as long as he did. Which brings us to Mauricio Pochettino. Cortese's obligation to him was to buy a former MP player named ...Dani Osvaldo (!) who he'd claimed would solve our striker problems. We can all be fairly sure that that chapter of his managerial career won't get much space in his autobiography -whenever that is published. The fact cannot be ignored that our crop of (newish) players, (most of them unfamiliar with the Prem.) are certainly not the only ones who haven't adapted to the rigours of the Prem. and the mere fact that end of season stats. show that the top clubs finish 10-20 points ahead of "the rest" surely goes to prove that money buys anything and we have to consider survival in the Prem as some sort of "success".

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roamer added 09:29 - Oct 9 Guys, Hughes MUST BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!! Why? Because his record for the first 9 games are SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than this of Pellegrino for these games who was a moron!!!!!! What are we discussing here? The football players were shite!?!? They are, actually. But who brought the players in? I am not telling you that it is Hughes, but Hughes was OK with all the selection, obviously. We cannot fire 15 players and bring in another 15 players, right? What is the only way to do is to fire the Manager and to find the way for motivation and good management of the games-starting eleven, right subs, right tactics, etc. I wrote yesterday the main issues with Hughes Management and I must say that - they are significant. Shortly here: he is not training well the squad-the players are very tired after 70 minutes of each game, he is not able to find the best tactic and best eleven, and the subs in the matches are late and not adequate. From the other hand the selection was disaster and he is not giving a chance to the players from Academy at all. I can't see the Board criteria which could give Hughes the reason to stay....

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Jesus_02 added 10:25 - Oct 9 Fare play Nick, you know how to get a response. Surly this artical is a wind up? Hojbjerg, Redmond & McCarthy have come good? Two years after they signed they are the best of a poor bunch. There are very few teams that would be willing to part with any decent amout of cash for them. We are self sufficiant... really? We have sold ALL our dencent players and have made NO money. We now have a load of average players on big wages that no one wants and a business model that relys on player turnover. Im not worried about relegation, we could have coped with that if we had a slim, good quality squad. What I am worried about is that we are in exactly the same possition we where with Lowe. In short we need to be rescued , if we do get relegated who will even pay the wages of Carrillio, Vestigard, Hoedt etc? We are basically trying to giove these players away now. We cant afford £40m on a striker? We can afford £55m on make weight squad players...a nd i dont want to hear about wages if those 3 dont add up to £120k a week I would be very suprised. And what about Gallagher, Reed , Sims , McQeen ect... simply not good enough some say . I say if they where training and playing with class players then then might be now. If a striker learns everything they know about goal scoring from Shane long what do you expect!

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