Former Manchester United player and football pundit, Gary Neville, has made a bold claim about the future of Chelsea in the Premier League. According to him, despite their recent impressive performances, Chelsea are 'miles away' from winning the title. He believes that there are three significant issues within Enzo Maresca’s squad that will prevent them from catching up with Arsenal.
Chelsea recently suffered a 3-1 defeat against Leeds United which has left them trailing nine points behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. This loss came as a surprise after three consecutive wins against Tottenham, Wolves and Burnley and an impressive performance in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal last weekend.
These victories had led some to consider Chelsea as one of Arsenal's closest title rivals this season. However, Neville insists that there are certain deficiencies within the team that will hinder their progress towards securing their first Premier League title since 2017.
Three key issues
Neville identified three key areas where he feels Maresca’s squad is lacking: goalkeeping, central defenders and strikers. He believes these positions lack depth or quality necessary for a championship-winning team.
"I’ve never bought into this ‘Chelsea are going to challenge for the title,’" Neville said on his podcast. Despite his skepticism about their chances at winning the league, he does back them to secure a top-four finish.
Gary Neville, Premier League pundit, said:
‘Getting close, maybe getting up to third or second, maybe, because there’s a lot of inconsistency around near the top of the league, it’s only Arsenal performing at a level you would say is anything like at the moment. Look, Leeds haven’t been great recently but there has to be an understanding of what they may face, I didn’t think there was any of that from Chelsea, the coach made changes. He played a team of very young players, Chalobah at right-back was awkward in terms of on the ball first half, you have a mountain of passes, a million passes in the back three that was driving me crazy, and you start passing slowly, don’t start a game slowly, get the ball moving. They drifted, walking on the ball, so many passes back the way, and when you start like that and a team are on top of you, you’re playing right into their hands.
‘They want them to play across the back slowly, it’s the easier thing in the world for the opposition, so don’t do that, feed the ball quickly into positions further forward. I have to say, Chelsea didn’t approach the game correctly. They didn’t have the beef on the pitch to handle Leeds’ muscle, it’s as simple as that, they were out-muscled, out-fought, out-run. Let’s stop talking about Chelsea being a title-winning team, it’s not there. But they will finish in the top four, I think they’ve got a lot of very good players, they’ve spent a fortune on that squad, they’ve got some real talent in there.
‘But they’re miles away from being a title-winning team, and I know what a title-winning team looks like and Chelsea fans will know what a title-winning team looks like. They’ve won plenty of them. They’ve seen the physicality and the durability you need to win the league, it’s not all about playing football. Particularly in these months of December, January, February, there are big demands on these players, it gets colder, games come thick and fast, the lads are having to go every three or four days, you’ve got to play a more robust game at this period of the year.
‘Chelsea are way off it in certain areas of the pitch, the spine is not good enough. They have some excellent players and there’s a lot to work with but they’re nowhere near a title-winning team, they’re nowhere near.’
While it remains uncertain whether or not Chelsea can overcome these challenges and close in on Arsenal's lead in time for this season's end, one thing is clear - they have some significant hurdles to overcome according to Gary Neville. As sports fans and sports betting enthusiasts watch closely how events unfold in coming weeks; it will be interesting to see if Maresca can address these issues effectively enough to prove Neville wrong.
