Gary Neville has revealed his prediction for the biggest game of the Premier League season so far as defending champions Arsenal face possible title challengers Chelsea.
Xabi Alonso takes his high-scoring Blues to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday with both teams hoping to maintain their perfect starts to the new campaign.
Arsenal began their title defence with a routine 3-0 win over newly-promoted Coventry City before beating Aston Villa 1-0 last time out thanks to Bukayo Saka’s winner.
Chelsea, meanwhile, beat west London rivals Fulham 3-2 in Alonso’s first competitive game in charge before an equally thrilling 4-3 win over Brighton at the weekend.
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Chelsea’s attacking flair, albeit from a small sample size, has convinced many pundits that the west Londoners are set for a much better season after finishing just 10th last term and could perhaps even challenge Arsenal for the title.
Neville has backed Chelsea to finish second behind Arsenal on the evidence he has seen and says a trip to the champions will be a ‘really good test’ for Alonso’s side.
The Manchester United legend and ex-England defender does expect Arsenal to edge past the dangerous Chelsea but insists the London derby will ‘show us where both teams are’.
Asked how Chelsea can provide a sterner test than Arsenal’s last opponents, Aston Villa, Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast: ‘I think Arsenal will realise Chelsea have better attacking players than Aston Villa so they’ll have to be alert and alive.
‘But I think Villa are the most organised team in the league except for Arsenal, I think they’re really well organised and so well drilled by Unai Emery. Chelsea aren’t as well organised as that and they aren’t as disciplined.
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‘They won’t defend in the same way as Villa so I think Arsenal may actually fancy their chances going forward more against Chelsea, but they’ll also have to be alert to the fact Chelsea have some fantastic attacking players.
‘That’s what makes it really interesting. I think Arsenal will win the game but it’s a really good test for them and a really good moment to see Chelsea in the early days of Xabi Alonso.
‘They’ve been so exciting in their first two games but this is the ultimate test for them against the champions who don’t make a lot of mistakes.
‘I can’t wait for it, I think it will be a really good game. And I think Arsenal will be really looking forward to it. It will show us a lot of where Arsenal and Chelsea are because I’ve put them as first and second.’
Revealing his scoreline prediction on The Overlap, Neville added: ‘We’ll go 2-0 to Arsenal. I think Arsenal are going to be so up for it and strong, they are going to be really aggressive.’
Arsenal not only won their first Premier League title since 2004 last season but also reached the Champions League final, where they suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to PSG.
Given Mikel Arteta has bolstered his squad with the signings of Bruno Guimaraes, Christos Tzolis and Ezri Konsa this summer, Neville expects Arsenal to once again be a force in Europe.
‘They can definitely have a go in Europe because they did last season and this is a better squad,’ the eight-time Premier League winner added.
‘They’re really up for another challenge but I just feel like in the tightest moments, in the biggest matches, you just need that something different and special going forward.
‘Not having that player might be a problem for them but they’re more than capable of challenging for both the Premier League and Champions League because that’s what they did last year.
‘But I think they needed that star striker, that would have been the final piece of the jigsaw. Whether they can do it without that player is debatable.’
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