Gary Neville believes Chelsea remain one of the most fearsome sides in the Premier League, despite Sunday’s defeat at Arsenal.
Chelsea won their opening two games, against Fulham and Brighton, before suffering a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium. Morgan Rogers had given the visitors an early lead, but Kai Havertz equalised before Martin Odegaard completed Arsenal’s comeback in the second half.
Manager Xabi Alonso has been tasked with returning Chelsea back to the top of English football, after last season’s miserable 10th-placed finish under tutorledge of first Enzo Maresca and then Liam Rosenior, both of whom were sacked.
And Neville, speaking on his Sky Sports podcast, believes Chelsea are Arsenal’s biggest threat to their league crown.
If you’d have said that to me a year ago, they were absolutely nowhere. I couldn’t see where this project was going.
Gary Neville
“I think they can finish second. Third is the lowest I see Chelsea finishing,” Neville said.
“If you’d have said that to me a year ago, they were absolutely nowhere. I couldn’t see where this project was going.
“Xabi Alonso said before the game that it’s early in this project and it is.
“He’s trying to establish a bit of experience in the spine with Martinez, Henderson, Lacroix and Welbeck and I think it’s the right way to go, you need good, experienced players in your dressing room.
“For me, I’m as positive as I have been for three, four, five years about Chelsea because I think they’re going in the right direction.”
Despite the defeat, Neville believes Chelsea can take confidence from the performance.
“It’s not perfect. They were on the wrong end of a result against Arsenal because Arsenal are such a good team and I wouldn’t expect them to beat Arsenal,” he went on.
“But that was as good as I felt they could have done in the game and they can go home thinking, “We can take confidence out of that defeat”, and that doesn’t sound right when you’re at the elite level. But I think people will know what I mean by it.
“You can sit here are say, “It’s win or nothing”, but that’s not what football is. Only one team wins the league every year, only one team wins the Champions League every year.
“Every elite club in Europe – France, Spain, Germany, Italy – want to win it so there is an element of making sure you’re seeing your club go in the right direction.
“I think those fans in the corner that have travelled from Stamford Bridge will be buying into what they’re seeing.”
