Gary Neville has named three signings he thinks Chelsea need to make to give Mauricio Pochettino the tools to mount a serious top-four challenge.
It has been a rough start for the Blues under Pochettino with the Argentine’s side currently tenth in the Premier League and nine points off leaders Manchester City after nine matches.
Chelsea, who have the fifth highest wage bill in the Premier League, have been in better form in recent weeks with three consecutive wins in all competitions before they were held to a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Saturday.
Pochettino’s men took a 2-0 lead against the Gunners over the weekend, thanks to goals from Cole Palmer and Mykhaylo Mudryk, but Arsenal hit back late on through Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard to grab a share of the points.
Their performances in recent weeks have shown an improvement on their displays from last season but Neville still reckons they are at least three players short of making a push for the top four.
Speaking on his Sky Sports podcast, Neville said: “Chelsea have shown a blueprint of what the future could look like.
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“They’ve still got a problem up front, they haven’t got a striker, and I still think they’ve got a problem with Thiago Silva’s age.
“He’s so important for them, but he is 39. And then the goalkeeper… Can he [Robert Sanchez] step up to be a good goalkeeper?”
Neville was particularly impressed by their midfielders and full-backs as Chelsea drew with Arsenal on Saturday, he added: “You can see that midfield, and in wide areas, they are bright.
“The full-backs, Marc Cucurella and Malo Gusto, did well today. And they are the second-choice full-backs, by the way.”
Robert Sanchez made a big mistake to gift Rice Arsenal’s first goal but Pochettino refused to put the blame at the Spaniard’s door.
Pochettino said after the match: “Too many games that we’re watching every week, always mistakes. Football is about mistakes. If you want to score, you want the opponent to make a mistake. Ninety per cent of goals are because the opponent made a mistake. Football is about mistakes.
“The only thing we can criticise a little bit is to read better the situation, the tempo and the timing. After 77 minutes, we’re trying to take some risks. OK, we can because it’s our philosophy. But maybe (we need) better decisions. So we can criticise a bit, but also this is football.
“It’s not to blame someone. It’s only that in this type of situation you need to read better, but that will arrive with time. Teams need to manage and drive games. You need to read the game, when to be calm, when to play, when to take risks.”
