Thomas Tuchel has admitted Chelsea still need more arrivals ahead of the final days of the transfer window.
Wesley Fofana is set to complete a minimum £70m move from Leicester to Chelsea after the Frenchman missed the Blues’ 2-1 win over the Foxes on Saturday.
Chelsea are still pushing for a deal to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Stamford Bridge from Barcelona, while also pushing for Everton’s Anthony Gordon.
The Blues are understood to be considering Wilfried Zaha as a possible alternative to Aubameyang, with boss Tuchel still hoping to see more new faces arrive before Thursday night’s deadline.
The German Chelsea manager has long vowed to be happy with the squad as the window closes regardless of the situation, but has also admitted he is hoping for new additions.
“Right now I think we might need more players in certain positions, but the end of the transfer window is very close and on September 1 I will be a happy coach no matter what,” Tuchel said.
“I will try to find solutions and not think about what could have happened or what could happen.
“All that matters is reality and at the moment (against Leicester) what mattered was finding a way to win.
“What will matter at Southampton is the same thing, finding a way to win, to progress individually and to push the team on my side. That’s what we will do, whether the players come or not.
Chelsea shook Conor Gallagher’s red card to beat Leicester 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Raheem Sterling’s brace for his first goals for Chelsea fired the host 10 to victory, with club captain Cesar Azpilicueta coming off the bench to make a big impact.
The Blues travel to Southampton on Tuesday with Gallagher suspended and N’Golo Kante still out with hamstring problems, although Mateo Kovacic is strengthening his fitness after a knee injury.
Spain defender Azpilicueta found himself on the bench in the early weeks of the campaign amid the transforming Chelsea squad.
Chelsea have already brought in Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella as new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are carrying out bold spending plans and a squad overhaul.
But Tuchel insisted Azpilicueta, 33, still had a vital role to play at Stamford Bridge despite all the off-field changes.
Asked about the difficulty of not selecting Azpilicueta in the starting line-up, Tuchel replied: “At the moment it is one of the most difficult decisions because he is training so well and is in such good shape and in so good mental state.
“He pushes everyone and is fully engaged – that’s normally what you want on the pitch.
“But if we play 4-4-2, it’s between him or Reece James. It’s a luxury issue we have, but when we went to a five-man defender (against Leicester) we had lucky to have them both on the pitch.
“Without tough decisions, we won’t get anywhere. We are used to competing for every title at Chelsea, to competing at the highest level.
“If we don’t have tough decisions, it just won’t happen. We hope to have 60 matches but to have 60 matches we need to have a team where everyone is ready to play and take a lot of tough decisions.
“Saturday, we found ourselves more or less in a situation where we had almost no more central defenders on the bench.
“Now we had N’Golo (Kante) injured and Conor Gallagher with a yellow-red card.
“So there are not enough tough decisions at the moment. I would like to have more, it would mean that we are in full competition mode.
