Southampton v Chelsea 18/08/96 4.00

Southampton             (0) 0 Chelsea                 (0) 0 FT

Gianluca Vialli failed to live up to his `lucky' nickname as Cheslea's pasta connection only managed to whet their fans' appetite instead of satisfying them in sweltering conditions at Southampton.

The 32-year-old Italian recruit from Juventus smacked his bald head in frustration as the Dell woodwork robbed him of a debut goal.

Everyone expected a feast as Ruud Gullit made his coaching bow with a new cosmopolitan team starring Vialli, Roberto di Matteo from Lazio and Strasbourg sweeper Frank Leboeuf.

But they were frustrated by a team that represents the good virtues of English workmanship.

Fabrizio Ravanelli had stoked up the pressure on his former Serie A rivals with his Middlesbrough hat-trick on day one of the new Premiership season.

But though comparisons with the `silver fox' are inevitable, they are also invidious with the grey-haired poacher making the most of chances against Liverpool that in the main eluded the Chelsea man.

But Vialli showed exactly what you might get for his mega wages in the 70th minute, launching himself acrobatically at Andy Myers' left wing cross into an overhead shot that finally beat Dave Beasant but smacked back off his right-hand upright.

Apart from that he had had only one real sight of goal in the 57th minute when his still considerable pace carried him strongly past Simon Charlton.

But the gangly former Blues goalkeeper maintained a point-winning display for the other new man on the benches, Graeme Souness, with a close-range block, and then whipped the ball off his toe when he raced through onto Di Matteo's pass moments later.

Gullit, showing few signs of managerial pressure in his first game in charge, will be satisfied with the promise shown and the way his side knitted together on its first competitive outing.

But Glenn Hoddle, the third new coach sitting in the south coast sun, may have learned less.

The foreign invasion and the gulf between the haves and the have-nots has never been more clearly illustrated than at the Dell.

Chelsea had just two Englishmen, Dennis Wise and Andy Myers, among their collection from Italy, France, Romania, Wales, Ireland and Sscotland.

Southampton, in contrast, were Sunday roast beef through and through, just adopted Welshman Alan Neilson not operating under the Cross of St George.

But there was only one of them interesting Hoddle, who was given a warm reception for his personal mission to evaluate Matthew Le Tissier for an England reinstatement.

He would have been impressed from the first minute, but his conviction would have waned.

The enigmatic midfielder dug deep into his memory bank of classic moves to show how he has revived his appetite after a miserable time last season.

Taking a deflected Jason Dodd pass on the right of the Chelsea penalty area, he did not even need to look up as he instinctively chipped the ball high over the stranded Dmitri Kharine.

To everyone's dismay, the ball fell against the far angle of the crossbar and Le Tissier never touched such heights again, collecting the first of his usual pack of yellow cards for kicking the ball away in the second half.

Though Souness has added a touch of aggression to Southampton's play, Le Tissier remains the main focus - an unfair burden.

And he possibly did enough, showing that his passing and imagination remains among the best, to earn a berth at least among Hoddle's initial enlarged squad for the trip to Moldova, especially with Paul Gascoigne and Jamie Redknapp doubtful.

Southampton, energetic and optimistic as they should be on their first day of the season, harried Chelsea without dislodging Leboeuf's assurance at sweeper.

The visitors, despite fitting together for the first time in a competitive match, were composed throughout, though di Matteo found the snapping tackles of Barry Venison and Jim Magilton a disincentive to creativity.

Vialli, though, linked intelligently with Mark Hughes, stretching Southampton's new and workmanlike heart of defence.

The best chance fell to Dennis Wise, who raced onto Craig Burley's pass in the 14th minute but was blocked by the advancing former Chelsea goalkeeper Dave Beasant.

Hughes, Leboeuf and Erland Johnsen all missed the target with headers from corners, while the Frenchman, inspired by Beckham's goal at Wimbledon, spotted Beasant off his line and tried to lob him from four yards inside his own half. It's not as easy as it looks, he grinned, as the effort sailed well wide.

Beasant saved well from Myers in the 35th minute, and Gullit must have been wondering if his side would regret their missed chances.

Le Tissier put in Neil Shipperley with a lovely weighted pass in the 50th minute, but Andy Myers blundered through him to clear.

Beasant repeated the save when Wise wriggled clear for a tight-angled shot on the right in the 68th minute, and he gratefully grasped Wise's header in the scramble that followed Vialli's shot against the post.

But both sides wilted in the closing stages, a point a good base for both to build on over the coming months.

Southampton: (4-4-2) Beasant, Neilson, Dodd, Charlton, Dryden, Venison, Magilton (Benali, 72), Le Tissier, Oakley (Basham, 58), Shipperley, Heaney.

Subs not used: Watson, Potter, Moss.

Booked: Dodd, Le Tissier.

Chelsea: (3-5-2) Kharine, Petrescu, Johnsen, Leboeuf, Clarke, Myers, Wise, Di Matteo, Burley (Morris, 58), Vialli, Hughes.

Subs not used: Duberry, Hitchcock, Minto, Nicholls.

Booked: Morris, Wise.

Attendance: 15,186.

Referee: M Bodenham (Cornwall).