...well, for this column, the answer is 'no', not by a long chalk. Indeed, the celebrations in the stands, the almost giddiness of their manager post-match... it all symbolises how far this club had fallen in recent years.
Under Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte or Carlo Ancelotti, the reaction would've been very different. Thumping a 10-man, bottom-of-the-table Southampton would've drawn no more than a shrug of the shoulders from these three giants. Indeed, for the performance and the opposition, to a man there would've criticism for the players - and some chastising for the home support.
But as this column has stated in the past, this isn't the Chelsea of Roman Abramovich. It's a different club. A different team. A different locker room. Sitting second looks good - but matters next-to-nothing at this stage in the season. Though to be fair, for today's Chelsea, it reads well.
As we say, Southampton offered nothing in terms of opposition on Wednesday night. Once Jack Stephens, wearing the captain's armband no less, was sent off for a silly tug of Marc Cucurella's mane, the game was over. Though even before then, Southampton were clearly there for the taking.
Jason Cundy, the former Blues centre-half, offered the best assessment of the opposition - not only on the night, but for Southampton's season so far. Referring to Joe Lumley in the Saints goal, Cundy summed things up well: "If you're going to play out from the back, you cannot demand your worst player on the ball to make the riskiest passes". Saints were always going to gift goalscoring chances on the night.
In the aftermath, there was no patting down the celebrations in the stands from the home manager. Enzo Maresca not only agreeing with the chants, but going a step further. Asked about the chants of "we have our Chelsea back", Maresca declared: "It was a very good feeling especially because you can see that they are happy. That is our target and why we work every day, to keep them happy.
"Tonight was a very good feeling and especially the one that they can see Chelsea is back, this is the important thing."
Maresca's bullish claims coming just days after another declaration about the future of his young team. Going into Wednesday night, the Italian recalled his first round of talks with management before walking out on Leicester City.
"The good thing is that I still think what I said to the owners and the sporting directors the first time I met them; because of the age, and how good the squad is, for me Chelsea in the next five or 10 years will be one of the teams, or the team, that will dominate English football," he said.
Again, the lack of scrutiny over Maresca's words. His claims. It Is another sign of how expectations around Chelsea FC have fallen. Sir Alex Ferguson never made such crazy assertions over his time as Manchester United manager. Nor Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. Even from positions of strength, knowing the backlash, did neither man make such calls. But for a manager in his first four months in the Premier League. For a team competing in the Europa Conference League this season. The source of such comments carries next-to-no credibility and as such, they're allowed to slide. Even the greatest, Pep Guardiola, over his eight years with Manchester City, has never been as confident publicly about the future of his team as Maresca has this week.
Even sitting second in the Premier League, there's nothing inside this Chelsea squad that suggests they're genuine contenders. When you consider everything that this Arsenal team and their management have gone through to even get themselves within a shout of the title, nothing suggests Chelsea have it in them to do the same. The goalkeeper. The centre-halves. Midfield. Strikers. Would any Blues player get into a full-strength City, Liverpool or Arsenal XI? Where's Chelsea's Ruben Dias? Alisson? Declan Rice? Erling Haaland? And that's just the Premier League. What about Europe? Real Madrid? Barcelona..?
For this column, given Maresca's cv, his claims are all the more surprising. What about those intangibles that produce title winning teams? At City, as part of the coaching staff, Maresca will have seen the influence a Vincent Kompany, Fernandinho or Bernardo Silva had on the locker room. As a player, with Juventus, he will have experienced the same sharing a dressing room with Alex Del Piero, Paolo Montero and Pavel Nedved. Where are such personalities in his Chelsea dressing room...?
For now, at this point in the season, Chelsea do deserve to sit second on the table. But they're strictly part of a group fighting to be 'the best of the rest'. The gap between fourth and automatic Champions League qualification in third is huge. Then there is a chasm between third and competing for the title.
No matter Wednesday's scoreline. No matter the fans' chants. Nothing in this current Chelsea team suggests they're capable of matching Maresca's claims.
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