Saturday 16 December 2017 20:15, UK
Mauricio Pellegrino praised Southampton's spirit after they succumbed to a narrow 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Marcos Alonso scored the only goal of a game Chelsea dominated but failed to kill off, with Southampton twice coming close to equalising through substitute Charlie Austin in the second half.
The defeat extended Southampton's winless run to six games in the Premier League, but Pellegrino was pleased with the attitude shown by his players after Wednesday's 4-1 thrashing by Leicester.
"Obviously when you are playing with five defenders you don't have a lot of people in the middle and they managed more of the ball," he told Sky Sports.
"Always when you win something on one side you lose something on the other, but at the end we had a couple of chances and we were really close.
"The feeling wasn't bad because we were fighting until the end and we were close to equalising.
"I imagined playing this way we would arrive at their end to have possibilities and we did. In general, the spirit was good, we competed well. It was a pity as we were really close to equalising.
"Obviously against Chelsea it is not easy to have many chances. But I think we had three clear chances and we couldn't score."
The defeat saw Southampton slip to 12th but Pellegrino is confident they can bounce back from their poor run of form.
"I think the team is training well and the mentality is good," he said. "They are fighting and we are creating a good atmosphere to try and bounce back from this situation, but football today is very tight. We have an opportunity next Saturday. Hopefully we can gain three points."
