Three wins in a week, 14 goals from four games, and still the players do not know if they will be in Ruud Gullit's next team. "I had to go to him at one o'clock this afternoon and say, `Ruud, is there any chance of putting the 16 up on the wall because some of the lads are wondering whether to get changed,' " the Chelsea captain Dennis Wise said. "He put the squad up but he didn't actually put the team up. He left that until 1.30."

Mark Hughes was the main beneficiary when the curtain rose on the partly refurbished Stamford Bridge. The Welsh warrior took the place of Gianluca Vialli who was left on the bench and obliged by scoring his first league goal of the season with a diving header.

Chelsea were irresistible in their first home game of the season and Southampton were left as battered as the Malaysian ringgit as the home side surged into a 4-1 half-time lead.

Some of Chelsea's attacking football was breathtaking in its scope and intensity and the Saints were quickly out of their depth, Dan Petrescu setting the Blues on their way with an audacious chip after seven minutes.

Frank Leboeuf, Hughes and Wise, against his first club, wrapped up Chelsea's scoring with three goals in five minutes around the half-hour mark in what was a frightening demonstration of Chelsea's burgeoning abilities.

However, Hughes - who should know a thing or two about attacking football, having once been the focal point of Manchester United's equally free-flowing 90s attack - typically preferred to play down their potential. "It's difficult to compare the two sides to be honest," he said.

If there is a question mark against Chelsea it is their propensity to give away silly goals. Their defence seems to have deteriorated since last season, and Ed de Goey seems a long way from being the answer to their goalkeeping problems.

In the 25th minute a piece of stunning stupidity from the giant Dutchman allowed Southampton to briefly equalise. The goalkeeper attempted to dribble a backpass across his goal and was left shellshocked when Kevin Davies forced the ball over the line.

In the second half, as Southampton began to put their game together, the Chelsea back four appeared to step aside and allow the old Chelsea defender, Ken Monkou, to charge through for South ampton's second goal.

As Southampton threatened to make a game of it, Chelsea were helped by the referee Alan Wilkie, who helped solve their main defensive weakness when he sent Frank Sinclair off 12 minutes from time.