Louis Sealey
Published December 4, 2025 5:34am
Updated December 4, 2025 5:34am
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Man Utd legend and ex-England defender Gary Neville (Picture: Getty)
Gary Neville believes Arsenal have already seen off one possible title rival, claiming Chelsea have ‘no chance’ of winning the Premier League.
Chelsea seemingly strengthened their title credentials by holding league leaders Arsenal to a 1-1 draw with ten man at the weekend.
But Enzo Maresca’s side suffered a significant setback on Wednesday night, losing 3-1 to Leeds United to slip nine points behind title favourites Arsenal.
Jaka Bijol gave Leeds the lead after just six minutes and the hosts doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time through Ao Tanaka.
Chelsea sensed a comeback when Pedro Neto got a goal back after the break but Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s 72nd-minute goal put the game to bed.
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While it was a huge win for relegation-battlers Leeds, who climbed three points above the drop zone, Chelsea’s defeat saw them slip to fourth in the Premier League.
Nine points now separates Premier League leaders Arsenal and Club World Cup winners Chelsea and Neville has ruled the Blues out of the title race.
Leeds United stunned Chelsea at Elland Road (Picture: Getty)
‘I don’t think they can win the title. In fact, I don’t think they’ve got a chance,’ Manchester United legend and ex-England defender Neville said of Chelsea on Sky Sports.
‘Chelsea do have some gaping holes when you see title-winning teams. They will be in the top four or five, no problem, but when you talk about winning the league, they are short in goal, short at centre back and short up top.
‘Their centre forwards, centre backs and goalkeepers aren’t good enough to be title winners.
Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea lost more ground in the title race (Picture: Getty)
‘Chelsea’s team is well built, it’s got an incredible amount of talent, but the centre-backs tonight were poor in every way.
‘The goalkeeper [Robert Sanchez] is not good enough to be a title-winning goalkeeper, and then at centre-forward, they [Delap, Guiu] are good players, but they’re not at the levels that are required to win Chelsea a title.’
While Chelsea slipped up at Elland Road, Arsenal continued their brilliant title charge with a routine 2-0 win over Brentford.
Speaking after the Leeds defeat, Maresca admitted the hosts ‘deserved’ the win and urged his players to respond ahead of their trip to Bournemouth this week.
Arsenal beat Brentford at the Emirates Stadium (Picture: Getty)
‘A very poor night, they [Leeds] deserved to win the game, they were better in all aspects,’ Maresca said. ‘We will try to analyse and learn from this game and focus o the next one.
‘It’s not about possession, in possession you need a purpose. Today they were better in all aspects. Congratulations to them.
‘After the goal we scored we had one or two clear chances, but the third goal killed the game completely, then it’s much more difficult.
The Gunners are five points clear in the title race (Picture: Getty)
‘It’s reality, its Premier League, you need to perform every game, no matter if you are at home or away or who the other team is.
‘It’s important to see where we are going to be in February or March, but most important is to understand what we did bad tonight and then try to improve.’
Chelsea goalscorer Neto, meanwhile, added: ‘They were better than us at everything.
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‘It’s difficult to take, we have to learn from that but we have to clear our minds, it happens. We are already focused on Bournemouth.
‘Sometimes it happens, we had a bad day, they had more intensity, attitude, won the second balls and had more desire than us. We cannot take games for granted.
‘Of course it hurts, it’s the worst part in football, Sometimes you can lose and say you gave everything on the pitch, but toady we have to take some responsibility, all of us.
‘Sometimes it happens, we are human. We had a really good month, it’s just a bad day. We don’t have explanation for that. Everyone wants to win.’
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