Gary Neville praises Chelsea tactic that “shocked Arsenal” and kept key Gunners player quiet

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has analysed yesterday’s game between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, with a thrilling encounter in this London Derby ending in a 2-2 draw.

Chelsea took a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Cole Palmer and Mykhaylo Mudryk, before a late comeback saw Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard score to ensure the Gunners took a share of the spoils.

Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, Neville was full of praise for Mauricio Pochettino’s tactical set-up, as the Chelsea midfield worked well to stifle the threat of key Arsenal creative player Martin Odegaard, who was uncharacteristically quiet when he’s so often had a big impact in big games like this in the past.

See below as Neville offered his explanation as to how the midfield three of Conor Gallagher, Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez worked well to limit Odegaard’s opportunities to work his magic as usual…

“Structurally, defensively, they were fantastic,” Neville said. “They did what Brighton do and sort of had Gallagher and Palmer coming back into number ten positions, and it sort of shocked Arsenal.

“They couldn’t get the ball into Odegaard, Arsenal, because of that midfield four … Mauricio Pochettino is a top coach and I think he’ll enjoy developing these players.”

While Chelsea will be disappointed to see this game slip away, Neville is probably right that Pochettino will have plenty of positives to take from it as well.

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