Gary Neville used Chelsea's 2-1 defeat to Arsenal in Arsenal vs Chelsea on Sunday to argue the project is still moving forward. He said Chelsea can finish second, with third the lowest he sees them ending, even after Morgan Rogers opened the scoring and Martin Ødegaard later put the hosts ahead at the Emirates.

Chelsea's direction under Xabi Alonso

“For me, I’m as positive as I have been for three, four, five years about Chelsea because I think they’re going in the right direction,” Neville told metro.co.uk. He added: “If you’d have said that to me a year ago, they were absolutely nowhere. I couldn’t see where this project was going.”

That is a fair read of where Chelsea are. The result left them in fourth, but Neville's point was about the wider trend, not one bad afternoon in north London. His view was that the team looks more coherent than it did a year ago, and that second is still on the table if the spine stays intact.

Lavia's withdrawal and Chelsea's midfield balance

The sharper criticism came over Romeo Lavia. Neville said he was surprised to see Lavia go off on the hour-mark, after the midfielder had completed 26 passes and posted a 6.48 rating in 60 minutes.

“In midfield, I thought Lavia played well. He was disappointed to go off and I was surprised to see him go off,” Neville said. He then pointed to the pairing he thinks gives Chelsea their best balance: “if you’ve got [Moises] Caicedo and Lavia in there, I think Chelsea are going to have a very, very good midfield two, but keeping those two fit is going to be the question.”

Neville also said the back three and the wing-back positions remain question marks in Chelsea's starting XI under Xabi Alonso. Chelsea started in a 3-4-2-1 shape, and that set-up still looks like it needs more weeks of stability before the top end of the table starts to feel secure.

The immediate takeaway is simple. Chelsea lost at Arsenal, but Neville still sees a side that can climb, and the biggest condition he attached to that view was fitness, with Lavia's place in the midfield still central to the debate.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →