Arsenal's Strong Defense Shines Despite Saliba Absence

Arsenal’s perfect start rolls on. Chelsea’s growing pains were laid bare.

At the Emirates, Mikel Arteta’s side dug out a 2-1 win that felt as much about grit as it did about quality. Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard delivered the goals, but it was the work without the ball that caught the eye of Jamie Carragher.

Arsenal’s steel without Saliba

Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher highlighted the most ominous detail for the rest of the league: Arsenal are defending like champions without their best defender on the pitch.

“I think the worrying thing for everybody else already is that Saliba – who is genuinely world-class, arguably probably the best centre-back in world football – has not played a minute of football so far this season. And it doesn’t look like anyone can score against them,” he said.

That’s the crux of it. No William Saliba. No obvious weakness.

Arsenal’s back line soaked up Chelsea’s threat, stayed compact, and restricted clear chances. Where last season they occasionally wobbled under pressure, this time they held firm, even as the game became scrappy and tense.

For a team with title ambitions, this is exactly the kind of performance that sends a message. Not a demolition. A refusal to be broken.

Neville tears into Chelsea’s defence

On the other side of the divide, the numbers are starting to sting. Seven goals conceded in three league games under Xabi Alonso. That’s not just a blip; it’s a pattern.

Gary Neville, speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, didn’t sugarcoat it. He focused on the back three, and what he saw at the Emirates alarmed him.

“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,” he said.

It wasn’t just individual errors. It was the whole structure. Gaps between defenders. Poor distances. A lack of cohesion that Arsenal exploited when it mattered.

Neville still stopped short of writing them off. He floated the idea that Alonso may need more reinforcements to properly shape the defence he wants. The implication was clear: coaching alone might not fix this quickly enough.

Chaos at the back, optimism up front

Here’s the twist. For all the chaos at the back, Neville is strikingly upbeat about Chelsea’s long-term direction under Alonso.

He singled out the wing-backs Pedro Neto and Jorrel Hato, praised the attacking options, and then went big with his prediction.

“I think they can finish second – third is the absolute lowest I can see Chelsea finishing,” Neville insisted. “I'm as positive as I have been for three four five years about Chelsea because I think they're going in the right direction.”

It’s a bold call for a team that currently can’t keep the door shut. But it underlines a belief that once the defensive issues are addressed, the rest of the structure is strong enough to carry them high up the table.

Alonso himself didn’t hide from the problems. He admitted his side must be tighter defensively, yet he took encouragement from their spirit and attitude in the defeat. The fight is there. The organisation is not.

Defining week ahead

Arsenal now carry their flawless domestic form into Europe. A trip to Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday will test the resilience Carragher praised, before a return to league duty away at Sunderland on Saturday.

Two very different environments. One growing expectation.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have almost a full week on the training ground. For Alonso, that might be more valuable than any post-match soundbite. He needs to reset his back line, rebuild confidence, and impose clarity on a unit Neville described as “all over the place.”

Hull City visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday. For a club with ambitions of finishing no lower than third, it already feels like the kind of game where a clean sheet would say as much as a win.