Chelsea face a tough task to catch early pace-setters Manchester City in this season’s Premier League title race, according to Blues legend Pat Nevin.
The reigning champions were beaten 1-0 by Pep Guardiola’s men on Saturday evening, with Kevin De Bruyne’s second-half strike settling the game at Stamford Bridge.
While Nevin believes there were positives in the defeat, including the performance of 21-year-old defender Andreas Christensen, he accepts that City look the team to catch this term.
The visitors outplayed Chelsea for much of Saturday’s match in west London, and Nevin was suitably impressed by the quality they showed, even if it doesn’t bode well for his old club.
‘There is a little sour taste left in the mouth after the loss against Man City and even the points dropped the other week against Arsenal stick in the throat a bit,’ Nevin wrote on Chelsea’s official website.
‘The two Manchester clubs have a bit of a gap in the league but it is very early days still and any expectation of the league being a cake walk was never seriously considered by anyone anyway.
‘City in particular are the benchmark for quality right now and if they keep up their skill levels, speed and style from the start of this season then they will be very hard to catch.’
The Scot added that Chelsea’s task in their upcoming fixtures is made even harder by the injury to Alvaro Morata, who went off with a hamstring strain in the first half against City.
‘We have a very good-looking league run between now and the end of the calendar year, one in which we could really put some pressure on the current leaders,’ he said.
‘I reckon Chelsea are outright favourites to win every one of those games with the only arguments being Manchester United at home and Liverpool away, and even those are probably evens at the bookies. I am not saying we will win every one of those games but there is a great opportunity for a great run and I think the players know this.
‘To do something special in that period we are going to need Alvaro Morata back and hopefully that hamstring problem is only a tweak.
Chelsea 2017/18 Fixtures
Newcastle (A) - Sun May 13
‘He certainly seemed to stop immediately after he felt it; it didn’t look like a ‘ping!’ moment as we say in the game. The tell-tale signs are familiar to all players and most fans when a hamstring strain is a bad one, so I would be mildly concerned as opposed to genuinely worried, but we will see.’
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