The shallowness of the challenge to Manchester United's English supremacy was exposed again last night as Chelsea failed to produce the victory over struggling Southampton that would have lifted them to second in the Premiership table, just four points behind the leaders.

With Blackburn only drawing at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday, United's slip-up at Coventry has virtually gone unpunished. The happy team last night were Southampton who are now four points clear of the bottom three.

Chelsea came into the game without two key players, the suspended Dennis Wise and the defender Frank LeBoeuf, who was a late withdrawal with flu.

Not content with these enforced absences, Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit added a few of his own by engaging in a familiar game of musical chairs.

Dropped to the bench were the strikers Gianluca Vialli and Tore Andre Flo, a typically illogical move given that both have been scoring goals recently, but Gullit could not resist the chance to include Mark Hughes on his return from a three-match suspension.

Yet it was at the back that the Chelsea changes proved most worrying early on. The Southampton manager Dave jones had engaged in his own bit of kidology by suggesting before the game that he would rest the striker Kevin Davies who has been a revelation since his £750,000 arrival from Chesterfield.

However, the England under-21 international was in the starting line-up and on 16 minutes he showed why. The evergreen Carlton Palmer broke down the right and fired an early cross which travelled unmolested into the Chelsea area and Davies nipped in front of Frank Sinclair to shoot past Ed De Goey from eight yards for his 11th goal of the season. Not surprisingly, the shock of going behind woke Chelsea up somewhat. They quickly got their passing game together and began to dominate the game. Mark Hughes saw a shot from eight yards chested off the line by Matthew Oakley and shortly afterwards Zola's cross on the break only just eluded the despairing six-yard box lunges of Roberto Di Matteo and Mark Hughes.

But Southampton came again towards half-time, once again exposing frailties in the Chelsea defence. Oakley broke down the centre and fed Davies in the area, but despite half-eluding Michael Duberry, the scorer of the opening goal could only poke the ball wide this time.

Seconds later Davies returned the compliment to Oakley who scooped his shot over the bar from about eight yards.

Chelsea began the second half with more purpose going forward, a clear response to what must have been a half-time ear-bashing from the manager. However, they clearly lacked the midfield bite of Wise and despite their improved intent, Chelsea's final ball let them down and Jones in the Southampton goal was not overly tested during this period.

On 59 minutes, Flo replaced Dan Petrescu to add some spice to the Chelsea front line with Zola consigned to the right wing.

However, it was Southampton, who next came closest to scoring and again it was that man Davies, bursting into the area, who caused the problem. But thankfully for Chelsea, who would have struggled to recover from going two behind, de Goey did well to block the shot with his body and David Hirst blasted the rebound over the bar.

Southampton: Jones, Dodd, Benali, Palmer, Monkou, Lundekvam, Le Tissier (Williams 80), Oakley, Hirst (Ostenstad 66), Davies, Richardson. Subs Not Used: Slater, Hughes, Moss. Goals: Davies 16.

Chelsea: De Goey, Petrescu (Flo 59), Le Saux, Clarke, Duberry, Sinclair, P Hughes (Vialli 89), Di Matteo, Granville, M Hughes, Zola. Subs Not Used: Hitchcock, Myers, Nicholls. Booked: Le Saux. Att: 15,231.

Referee: M J Bodenham (East Looe).