February 4th 2025.
Former Manchester United and England defender, Gary Neville, has shared his thoughts on Chelsea's current state and believes that the team still needs three major signings in order to compete for the Premier League title. Despite spending large sums of money on transfers in recent years, Neville believes that the club is lacking in three key positions.
Under the management of new boss Enzo Maresca, Chelsea showed glimpses of being a genuine title contender this season. However, their form has taken a sharp decline since mid-December. Despite a much-needed 2-1 win against London rivals West Ham on Monday, Chelsea had only won one out of their last seven Premier League games leading up to the match and were in desperate need of three points to secure a spot in the Champions League.
Neville pointed out that one of the areas that Chelsea needs to strengthen is the goalkeeper position. Maresca had decided to replace the struggling No.1 Robert Sanchez with Filip Jorgensen for the match against West Ham. Neville, who won eight Premier League titles during his 19-year stint at Manchester United, also believes that the team needs a new striker and possibly a new centre-back.
Despite Nicolas Jackson's impressive start to the season, the striker has now gone eight games without scoring a goal and was even substituted at half-time during the match against West Ham. Discussing Chelsea's progress under Maresca after the West Ham win, Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast, "I think they're having a good season and are in a good position. The shock was their bad run of form during a period where they were expected to pick up a lot of points against weaker opponents. I had them in fourth place."
He also added, "With a young team, it's normal to have a rollercoaster of results and not a smooth journey to the top. They will need to learn along the way." Maresca has repeatedly defended Sanchez despite the goalkeeper making more errors leading to goals than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League this season. However, in their recent match, Maresca decided to give Jorgensen a chance in goal.
When asked if Jorgensen could be the solution to Chelsea's goalkeeping problems, Neville replied, "It's too early to say. He had a comfortable night, but the real tests will come and we'll see how he performs then." Chelsea had a relatively quiet January transfer window, focusing more on trimming their squad rather than bringing new players in.
Speaking after the win against West Ham, Maresca said, "It was a mentally tough game, especially when the opposition sits back with ten players behind the ball. We needed to be mentally strong and patient." He also acknowledged that the team missed a number of clear chances in the first half but managed to turn things around with some changes in the second half.
Explaining his decision to switch goalkeepers, Maresca said, "At the moment, Robert needs some rest, and Filip did a great job." Overall, Maresca believes that the team deserved the win and is satisfied with their performance. However, he also acknowledged that there is still room for improvement and that the team will need to add to their squad in order to compete for major trophies.
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