Ross Barkley gives Sarri his Hamsik in comfortable victory

Chelsea have been crying out for a goalscoring midfielder. Against Southampton, Ross Barkley showed that he can fill the void.

In many ways, Chelsea’s 3-0 win at St. Mary’s on Sunday was a smooth and impressive continuation of all that has been good under Maurizio Sarri.

Jorginho performed to his usual metronomic standards, controlling and manipulating proceedings, sucking the life out of Southampton’s midfield without hardly breaking a sweat.

Eden Hazard was, yet again, scintillating. His wonderfully aesthetic style, combining twists, turns, touches, flicks and bursts, made a mockery of Southampton at times, reducing them to hapless red and white mannequins.

Most pleasingly for Chelsea, and most commendably for Sarri, was that Hazard was once again able to convert his talent into three points. His match defining-contribution — a goal and an assist — was further evidence of the tangible progress he has made under the new management.

The rear-guard continued their slow, but upward trajectory. There were a few hairy moments —  the first half sitter granted to Danny Ings springs to mind — but a number of positives to accompany them.

In goal, Kepa built on his impressive midweek performance with a couple of excellent saves. Antonio Rudiger put in another commanding display and generally, there was a sense of solidity unrecognizable from the season’s earlier fixtures.

Yet amidst all the familiarity lay one glaring, and very welcome difference: The presence of a box-to-box, goalscoring midfielder.  For all the positivity surrounding Sarri’s revolution, this has been a noticeable absence.

Mateo Kovacic is an excellent player, but there are doubts surrounding his suitability to the more advanced role in Sarri’s midfield. His skill, touch and dribbling prowess are all strong, but the position necessitates some end product, something Kovacic is less adept in.

The Croatian averaged just one goal per season at Real Madrid, and his wild efforts, painfully apparent against Vidi in midweek, will not have escaped Sarri’s attention. Nor will his unwillingness to run beyond the ball.

The Italian requires more cutting edge from midfield. Marek Hamsik scored 25 league goals and recorded 31 assists from the left-sided midfield role during Sarri’s three seasons in Naples. For all his quality, Kovacic does not look equipped to emulate such prolificacy.

And perhaps it was this realization that provoked Sarri to go with Barkley from the off against Southampton. Having nearly netted the winner against West Ham, played a major role in the equalizer at Anfield, and having struck the bar against Vidi, Barkley has showed Sarri that he carries a goal threat.

And with a season best tally of eight goals and eight assists for Everton in 2015-16, Barkley’s history would suggest so, too. He wasn’t compared to Paul Gascoigne for nothing.

He possesses genuine goalscoring ability, the balance and footwork to beat opponents, the technical ability to pass the ball, and the physicality to press and get up and down the pitch. Sounds a bit like Hamsik.

And that was exactly how Barkley played at St Mary’s. For the opener, he dispossessed Pierre-Emile Hoijberg with a crunching tackle, spotted Hazard’s run through the middle and split the defense with a perfectly weighted through ball. Hazard did the rest.

Barkley’s goal, a tap in from a set piece, might have looked easy. But that’s only because he made it look easy. The goal relied on the timing of the run and, crucially, a sense of where the ball might end up — two rare and valuable gifts for a midfielder to possess. Just look at Frank Lampard.

The rest of Barkley’s game was excellent, too. The Englishman was tidy when he needed to be, quickly moving the ball on to wherever the space presented itself. His dribbling ability drew a number of pressure-releasing fouls and allowed him to burst forward when appropriate.

Sarri was clearly impressed. “He played very well, I am really happy with him’, the Italian said. “From the beginning he has improved day by day, week by week and match by match, so I am very happy with him and for him, for the goal.

“I said to him from the first day that he has great quality – physical and technical quality, now he is improving in the tactical point of view, he will become a very important player.”

Chelsea continued their seamless transition to Sarriball and head into the international break with nine wins and two draws from 11 games.

And, in Barkley, Sarri might just have found Chelsea’s answer to Hamsik.