Ex-Manchester United defender, Gary Neville, has launched a scathing attack on the current league-leaders, Chelsea, laughing off their chances of going unbeaten throughout the season.
After a rapid start to the new Premier League campaign, many people have likened the Chelsea team to the Arsenal team that went the whole season without defeat back in 2003/2004, but the Sky Sports pundit has laughed off those summaries.
Neville, who was talking on Monday Night Football, stated that Chelsea are not like the Arsenal side of ’04 and believes the current crop isn’t as good as the last team Mourinho had at Stamford Bridge.
‘If a team are going to be playing for a 1-0 then you better see it out,’ Neville said. ‘When I saw Jose Mourinho two weeks ago he talked about the 2005 (Chelsea) team and (compared) the team he had then to the team he has now and he said the killer instinct’s missing.
‘When I look at the statistics they are staggering – 28 times they (the 2004/05 team) scored first (in Premier League matches), 27 the season after and they only dropped two and four points (respectively).
‘This team this season, even though they’re at a really high level, have scored first seven times and already dropped four points. They’ve got to get to that next level.’
‘When (Manchester) City went down to 10 men I thought Chelsea let them off the hook and yesterday at 1-0 up I think Chelsea let United off the hook.
‘There’s a mentality shift.
‘At Manchester City they went from 55 per cent possession for the 10 minutes before the goal, and the 10 minutes after they went to 26 per cent possession, and City had 10 men. That can’t be an instruction from the manager. That’s a shift in the players.
‘Yesterday (against Manchester United) they went from 64 per cent (possession before scoring) to 45 per cent (after scoring). They switch off.
‘This is not the manager changing it. The players who have worked themselves into a 1-0 lead have then sat deeper.’
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
