Arsenal's Perfect Start Survives Chelsea's Challenge
Arsenal’s perfect start to the season survived its sternest examination yet, a 2-1 win over Chelsea that said as much about their steel as their style.
Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard delivered the goals, but it was the work without the ball that caught the eye of Jamie Carragher, who highlighted just how little joy opponents are finding against Mikel Arteta’s side – even without their defensive lynchpin.
Arsenal’s defence sends a message
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher did not hide his admiration for Arsenal’s organisation at the back, especially given William Saliba has yet to kick a ball this season.
“I think the worrying thing for everybody else already is that Saliba, - who is genuinely world-class arguably probably the best centre-back in world football – has not played a minute of football so far this season. And it doesn’t look like anyone can score against them,” he said.
That, for Arsenal’s title rivals, is the chilling part. Arteta’s team are winning tight games, closing down space, and suffocating attacks with a back line that is still missing its standout centre-back. Chelsea probed, pushed and asked questions, but they rarely found clear answers in the final third.
Arsenal now roll on to Europe with momentum intact, a perfect domestic record in their pocket and the sense that there is still another level to come once Saliba returns.
Chelsea’s chaos at the back
While Arsenal look settled and secure, Chelsea are anything but. Seven goals conceded in three league games under Xabi Alonso tells its own story, and Gary Neville did not sugar-coat what he saw at the Emirates.
On the Gary Neville Podcast, he tore into the Blues’ defensive structure, appalled by how ragged they appeared.
“The back three, when I watch them, it's almost like their legs aren't connected to their hips and the hips aren't connected to their bodies. It's almost like they're a bit all over the place,” Neville said.
Chelsea’s back line looked disjointed, their distances poor, their reactions slow. For all the talk of Alonso’s ideas, the basics of defending – shape, communication, cohesion – still seem a long way off. Neville even floated the idea that Alonso may need reinforcements, hinting that the current group might not be enough to execute the Spaniard’s plans.
Yet the criticism of the defending did not turn into a full-scale condemnation of the project.
Neville’s bold belief in Alonso’s Chelsea
Despite the chaos at the back, Neville sounded unusually upbeat about where Chelsea are heading. He singled out wing-backs Pedro Neto and Jorrel Hato for praise and pointed to the attacking options that give this side a different edge.
“I think they can finish second - third is the absolute lowest I can see Chelsea finishing,” Neville insisted. “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.”
It was a striking verdict after a defeat that exposed such glaring flaws, but it underlined a belief that once Alonso tightens the structure, the rest of the pieces could fall into place.
Alonso himself accepted the defensive issues in his post-match reflections. He admitted his team must be tighter and more compact, but he clung to the positives: the attitude, the spirit, the refusal to fold against a rampant Arsenal side.
What comes next
For Arsenal, the schedule sharpens. They head to Italy to face Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday, a test of their growing maturity on the European stage, before returning to league duty away at Sunderland on Saturday. With a perfect start and Saliba still to come back, the ceiling feels high.
Chelsea, by contrast, are in problem-solving mode. Alonso now has close to a full week on the training ground to reset his defensive unit before Hull City visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The attacking promise is there. The energy is there.
The question is whether he can turn that swirling, uncertain back three into a platform sturdy enough to justify Neville’s prediction of a top-two finish.
