Gary Neville has urged Chelsea to sign three ‘top-class’ players after a frustrating Premier League defeat to Arsenal.
Chelsea’s first wobble under latest boss Liam Rosenior continued on Sunday with the Blues suffering a 2-1 defeat on the Emirates Stadium.
Rosenior’s side looked marginally on top within the second half after Piero Hincapie’s own goal cancelled out William Saliba’s early opener.
But Jurrien Timber scored Arsenal’s winner following one other mistake from Robert Sanchez and Chelsea were unable to reply after losing Pedro Neto to a red card.
While Arsenal restored their five-point lead at the highest of the Premier League, a 3rd straight game and not using a win leaves Chelsea sixth within the table, six points outside the top-four places.
Neville says he ‘still can’t work Chelsea out’ but is adamant they need more ‘experience’ in three key areas of the pitch.
‘I’ve never commentated on a team that make me feel so many various emotions during a single game,’ former Manchester United and England defender Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
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‘You may watch them and think they’re naive, they’re too nice, they’re ill-disciplined or that they’re electric, they’re a fantastic possession team and they’re so talented.
‘You may think so many various things. I flip between considering they’re miles away and considering in the event that they can get a goalkeeper, an experienced centre-back and an experienced centre-forward they may very well be in business.
‘They should keep players fit but they need a top-class goalkeeper, a top-class centre-back with experience and a top-class centre forward to accompany Joao Pedro and Liam Delap, not to switch them.
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‘Have three strikers – Pedro who’s superb, Delap who’s young with potential – after which bring someone in. I do know that’s difficult – these players usually are not there, but they need a centre-forward with experience.
‘I’m not talking a few 33-year-old striker but someone who’s 27 or 28 and the identical on the back, a player who has real presence who can provide them some solidity.
‘I’m going to speak concerning the goalkeeper as well because Robert Sanchez invites problems, each time I watch him my heart is in my mouth.
‘He flaps on the Arsenal goal so for me Chelsea are three players short, they need players in those positions.
‘I’ve got many thoughts about Chelsea and I still can’t quite work them out.’
Rosenior was frustrated with each Chelsea’s defending at set-pieces and their disciplinary issues after the defeat at Arsenal.
‘I’m really frustrated with the top result,’ he said. ‘A whole lot of good things in our game but we were undone by two set pieces like we were against Burnley last week.
‘There have been some outstanding performance. Technically and tactically but we were undone by moments. Same as against Burnley and against Leeds.
‘I don’t need to push the league leaders very hard. We’re Chelsea, we would like to win games of football.
‘Between each boxes, we were very, superb. I felt we were the higher team by far within the second half but we weren’t ruthless within the moment.’
Chelsea face one other huge game on Wednesday night as they visit top-four rivals Aston Villa, who suffered a shock defeat to bottom-placed Wolves last outing.
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