Gary Neville says Chelsea are ‘miles away’ from winning the Premier League (Sky Sports)
Gary Neville insists Chelsea are ‘miles away’ from winning the Premier League title and believes Enzo Maresca has three issues in his squad that will 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 an impressive performance in 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.
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‘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.
Gary Neville says Chelsea do not have the goalkeeper, the centre-backs or the strikers to win the Premier League (AFP via Getty)
‘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.
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‘They haven’t got the goalkeeper for it, they haven’t got the centre-backs for it, and they haven’t got the centre-forwards for it.
‘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.’
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