Neville on Chelsea’s title hopes

Gary Neville believes Chelsea’s clean-sheet mentality is breeding confidence, and that their lack of European football will be beneficial in the title race.

Antonio Conte’s side beat Southampton 2-0 at St Mary’s on Super Sunday, their fourth Premier League win and clean sheet on the trot.

It puts them one point off the top of the Premier League, and Neville believes that defensive confidence is becoming evident, adding Sunday’s performance was near-faultless.

He said on the Gary Neville Podcast: “The very, very top teams make the fewest mistakes, and that was a team performance today (Sunday) of no mistakes.

“That clean sheet mentality has definitely been forced into them. It’s a way of being, it builds so much confidence. When the goalkeeper and defenders are happy, when they are comfortable and relaxed, the crowd aren’t getting anxious.

“I’m seeing Chelsea players do the right things, staying with their runners, and they’ve got two very, very good central midfield players from a defensive point of view, they’ve got a wonderful ability to read the game and fill in the gaps.

“Are they the finished article? Probably not, but I wouldn’t rule them out of the title, because I don’t trust the others enough to think that Chelsea can’t win it.”

Chelsea finished 10th last season with Jose Mourinho and then Guus Hiddink at the helm, meaning a year out of European competition for Conte’s first season in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Despite …

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