Gary Neville has just made an interesting point about Chelsea when reflecting on Arsenal’s recent performance away to Manchester City.
Chelsea are quietly going about their business so far in the Premier League by making a decent start, collecting 10 points from five games so far. In fact, Jamie Carragher has already changed his mind about Chelsea this season.
We’ve just had the biggest fixture of the season to date last Sunday, which was the unforgettable 2-2 draw between Man City and Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s visiting side led 2-1 going into half time, but the match changed on Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard being sent off in stoppage time of the first half for kicking the ball away and picking up a second booking.
As a result, the Gunners defended valiantly with 10 men during a very one-sided second half. Unfortunately for them, John Stones popped up with a 98th minute equaliser for Man City to grab a point.
Gary Neville has now made an interesting comparison between Arsenal and a legendary Chelsea team from the past.
Gary Neville reminisces on Chelsea greatness
Neville has reminisced on Chelsea’s great side from 2012 after watching Arsenal’s defensive setup on Sunday.
The Blues produced one of the greatest defensive performances in history to get past Barcelona over a decade ago in the semi-finals of the Champions League, which they went on to win by beating Bayern Munich in the final.
Neville’s frustration with Arsenal is that they put everybody behind the ball against Man City and left no outlet up top to relieve pressure. In contrast, Chelsea left a certain Fernando Torres up front in their scenario to be the hero.
“I did think Arsenal’s concentration and defensive work was brilliant [against Man City], but then I started to think about teams in history of when they’ve been in these types of positions,” Neville told the Stick to Football podcast.
“The best I’ve ever seen… John Terry gets sent off against the greatest football team of all time in the Nou Camp. I’m in the commentary box and I’m commentating…
“I thought Arsenal had to score in the second half to probably get the win… You’ve got to think that way, ‘we’ve got to get one goal’. That was the only thing, and it was a brilliant thing what they did, a great effort, but back in history there are teams that have got over the line.”
Defensive masterclass from Chelsea
The way Chelsea defended in the second leg of their Champions League tie in the Camp Nou will never be forgotten.
Chelsea went into half time level at 2-2 on aggregate, leading via the away goal rule. However, the Blues had to play the entire second period with 10 men after captain John Terry was shown a red card in the 37th minute.
Not only did Chelsea keep Barcelona out of their net in a second half that they were camped on the edge of the box for, Fernando Torres even went up the other end in the 92nd minute to score a counter-attack goal and wrap up a 3-2 aggregate win.
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