Gary Neville insists Chelsea are ‘miles away’ from winning the Premier League title and believes Enzo Maresca has three issues in his squad that can stop the team from catching Arsenal.
Chelsea slipped to a 3-1 defeat away to Leeds United on Wednesday night which has left Enzo Maresca’s men nine points behind Mikel Arteta’s side.
After three consecutive wins against Tottenham, Wolves and Burnley were followed by a formidable performance within the 1-1 draw with Arsenal last weekend, Chelsea were considered by some to be the Gunners’ closest title rivals this season.
Neville has backed Chelsea to secure a top-four finish but feels Maresca lacks lack the goalkeeper, central defenders and strikers to guide his side to their first Premier League title since 2017.
‘I’ve never bought into this, ‘Chelsea are going to challenge for the title’,’ Neville said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
Get your football fix
Punchy evaluation, transfer talk and more from Metro’s football experts sent straight to your inbox – enroll, it’s an open goal.
‘Getting close, perhaps getting as much as third or second, perhaps, because there’s a whole lot of inconsistency around near the highest of the league, it’s only Arsenal acting at a level you’ll say is anything like for the time being.
‘Look, Leeds haven’t been great recently but there must be an understanding of what they might 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 by way of on the ball first half, you have got a mountain of passes, 1,000,000 passes within the back three that was driving me crazy, and also 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 best way, and once you start like that and a team are on top of you, you’re playing right into their hands.
‘They need them to play across the back slowly, it’s the better thing on the earth for the opposition, so don’t do this, feed the ball quickly into positions further forward.
‘I even have to say, Chelsea didn’t approach the sport accurately. They didn’t have the meat on the pitch to handle Leeds’ muscle, it’s so 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.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an internet
browser that
supports HTML5
video
‘They haven’t got the goalkeeper for it, they haven’t got the centre-backs for it, they usually haven’t got the centre-forwards for it.
‘But they are going to finish in the highest 4, I feel they’ve got a whole lot of superb 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 do know what a title-winning team looks like and Chelsea fans will know what a title-winning team looks like. They’ve won loads of them. They’ve seen the physicality and the sturdiness it is advisable 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 4 days, you’ve got to play a more robust game at this era of the yr.
‘Chelsea are way off it in certain areas of the pitch, the spine is just not ok. They’ve some excellent players and there’s so much to work with but they’re nowhere near a title-winning team, they’re nowhere near.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the newest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Mikel Arteta responds to Roy Keane over Arsenal title claim
MORE: England’s potential path to World Cup final revealed after group draw
MORE: Arsenal in talks to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi ahead of Chelsea in £39m transfer