Oscar's superlative performance against Southampton proves Jose Mourinho right

Jose Mourinho has Oscar to thank for inspiring his Chelsea side’s New Years Day victory, with the midfielder involved in all three goals as Chelsea recorded a 3-0 win over Southampton. The Brazilian came off the bench to put in an impressive cameo, perhaps putting another nail in Juan Mata‘s coffin while he was at it.

Oscar replaced the disgruntled Spaniard on 53 minutes, as Mourinho made a double substitution in the hopes of finding a breakthrough. Willian also entered the fray, replacing Andre Schurrle, and both substitutes, Oscar in particular, provided the spark that Mourinho had envisaged.

The 22-year-old had a hand in all three goals. It was his deflected cross that made its way into Fernando Torres‘ path for him to put home at close range, his mazy run and pass that set up Willian for his fine goal from the edge of the box, and his forward run that Eden Hazard spotted and picked out for him to score a goal of his own and round off the game.

He was all over the pitch, as his heat map shows, and showed the desire to get into the penalty box, unlike Mata who didn’t have a single touch of the ball in the area. He also put in a committed defensive shift, as is typical of him, chipping in with five tackles, three of which were successful.

The diminutive midfielder also excelled with the ball at his feet. In his 38 minute cameo he attempted three take ons, and successfully got past his man on all three occasions. This was a stark contrast to Mata, who completed just the one take on during his time on the pitch.

Whilst Mata did complete 100% of his passes, Oscar proved to be far more of a goal threat than his midfield colleague. Mata failed to create a chance in his time on the pitch, whereas Oscar produced two key passes during his spell in Mourinho’s midfield.

The one black mark on his report card is the yellow card that he rightly received, a mere two minutes after being subbed on, for trying to con the referee into giving a penalty by throwing himself over goalkeeper Kelvin Davis, who had rushed off his line. It wasn’t the manner in which Mourinho wanted him to make an immediate impact, but he went on to set things right.

Mourinho recently said that his aim is just to get a top four place, but with the likes of Willian, Oscar, and Hazard in fine form at the moment, thus helping Chelsea put together a fine run of results, an assault on the title shouldn’t be ruled out.