Chelsea spent more than £340m during the summer and shipped around £415m back in sales, and Gary Neville used their first Super Sunday of the season to ask whether the money moved in the right direction. From the Sky Sports commentary box at the Emirates, he kept returning to the same absence: Enzo Fernandez, sold to Manchester City on transfer deadline day.

“Chelsea didn’t get in a new midfielder after Enzo Fernandez left on transfer deadline day. Enzo hasn’t really been replaced,” Neville said, in comments reported by Football365.

The £117m arrival Morgan Rogers had given Chelsea a dream start. He put the visitors ahead inside two minutes at the Emirates before Kai Havertz levelled on 25 minutes and Martin Odegaard finished the game five minutes into the second half.

A back three ‘all over the place’

Neville reserved his sharpest analysis for what happened once Arsenal settled. Chelsea’s defensive structure, he told viewers, was pulling itself apart.

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“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 told Sky Sports.

Questions for Emi Martinez

The goalkeeper Chelsea brought in this summer did not escape the audit either. Havertz’s equaliser drew a direct rebuke.

“I do think Emi Martinez has to save that. Chelsea have brought him in as a big personality goalkeeper, the big Argentine. But I do think he has to save that, he’s slow to go down,” Neville said.

And still, top three

Despite the tally of complaints, Neville’s overall reading of Alonso’s project remained strikingly upbeat.

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“I think they can finish second, third is the absolute lowest I can see Chelsea finishing,” he said, adding that he was “as positive as I have been for three four five years about Chelsea”.

Alonso pointed to Chelsea’s injury list without hiding behind it.

“You need to deal with injuries, the squad are missing the injured player. The ones we had went with full gas,” the Spaniard said.

“It hurts. It hurts because a defeat has to hurt.”

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