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Brentford 0-1 Chelsea: Gary Neville believes Thomas Tuchel's side can win Premier League title

Gary Neville told Sky Sports: "I think Chelsea can win the title. They're a team who are resilient and are tough to play against. I can't think that any team in the league would like to play against them"

Cesar Azpilicueta was part of another Chelsea clean sheet
Image: Cesar Azpilicueta was part of another Chelsea clean sheet

Gary Neville believes Chelsea underlined their Premier League title credentials by surviving a late onslaught to beat Brentford 1-0 on Saturday Night Football.

Edouard Mendy's stunning string of saves ensured Chelsea climbed back to the top of the Premier League, with Ben Chilwell's strike sealing a nervy 1-0 win at luckless Brentford.

England full-back Chilwell's second league goal in as many games pushed Chelsea back ahead of Liverpool in the standings - but Senegal stopper Mendy's inspired showing secured the points.

"I think Chelsea can win the title," Neville told Sky Sports. "I know people will say Manchester City or Liverpool and you can't disagree with that given what they've done over the last three or four years.

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Gary Neville is confident that Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea side can mount a serious title challenge against teams like Manchester City and Liverpool

"City's performance at Chelsea a few weeks ago was incredible, but I do feel this Chelsea team are resilient and are tough to play against. I can't think that any team in the league would like to play against them.

"I know Brentford have enjoyed the last 10 to 15 minutes, but this was a tough game for them for the first 70-80 minutes. They couldn't get into it, they had to change and they had a bit of joy at the end.

"That was a Chelsea team that had a few players missing as well, and they've got so many to come back. They had so many good players coming off the bench too, so I feel they've got a great shout of winning the title."

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Thomas Tuchel celebrates at full-time
Image: Tuchel celebrates at full-time

Bryan Mbeumo twice hit the post for Thomas Frank's ever-impressive Bees, before Mendy conjured at least four last-ditch saves.

The former Rennes keeper thwarted Saman Ghoddos, Ivan Toney and Pontus Jansson - before denying Christian Norgaard from the Dane's acrobatic overhead kick.

Norgaard saw an effort cleared off the line by Trevoh Chalobah too, as Chelsea refused to break despite some desperate defending.

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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Chelsea’s win at Brentford

Neville added: "Brentford brought [Marcus] Forss on to stop Ruben Loftus-Cheek playing and all of a sudden, the game changed.

"Brentford completely altered the way they played in the second half. Mendy was absolutely brilliant, and if you're going to win a title you need your goalkeeper.

"There will be games in a season where you don't deserve to win, you don't deserve to take a point but your goalkeeper makes two or three world-class saves. Mendy was brilliant today and he has made the difference for Chelsea since replacing Kepa Arrizabalaga.

"Chelsea were conceding too easily before. There were times when with Kepa, goals were going in far too easy. Some of the goals were two metres inside the post it felt. But it's a lot harder to score now against them."

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Thomas Frank was proud of Brentford's performance against Chelsea, saying the European champions were very lucky to escape with the win

After victories for Liverpool and Man City earlier on Saturday, the pressure was on Chelsea to keep up the pace in what promises to be a tight title race, and they returned to the top of the pile with their sixth win of the season.

Despite the narrow win, Thomas Tuchel's latest tactical ruse of pushing Mateo Kovacic and N'Golo Kante
into wider areas failed to pay dividend.

The German reserved special praise for his goalkeeper.

"This clean sheet is down to Edou today," the Chelsea head coach said. "Maybe not the cleanest sheet we ever had but very important to get the three points."

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Tuchel was happy with Chelsea's performance for most of the match against Brentford but admits the Bees' late chances made it like a cup final

"Better to be [top] than the other way around but it's way too early and there's too many teams that are close, so with every draw, with every loss you can win or lose three or four positions. That's not the main point in October.

"I'm happy about our performance against Southampton, a well-deserved win today. I'm happy with the energy, I can recognise us, I'm happy with the way we play and from here on we go.

"In these moments it helps if you have Toni (Rudiger) or Thiago (Silva) to stay calm, to win decisive challenges... but we don't want to talk about guys who are not here. We trust the guys who played and if you don't play you can't get experiences and they did very, very good.

"In the last 25 minutes we need to talk where we can do better but there's always room to improve."

'City still favourites, Liverpool have best XI'

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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Manchester City's win over Burnley

Neville also assessed the title chances of Manchester City and Liverpool, who both recorded comfortable wins on Saturday.

He added: "You'd have to still say Manchester City are the favourites for the title, and I picked them at the start of the season. But Chelsea have played Arsenal, Tottenham, City and Liverpool and only lost once. They're top of the league despite having a really tough start.

"[Romelu] Lukaku has not been at his best, either, which is another good sign. They're top of the league and their star striker isn't firing when you know he will at some point.

"The issue City have at centre-forward might just bite them. Liverpool have the best first XI but I'm just not sure about them if something goes wrong and they start to lose some of those starters, like they did last season with Van Dijk or if Salah got injured. I think Liverpool are a little bit exposed to that.

"I think Chelsea's squad is really strong and we've seen today that even without a couple of centre-backs, they can produce a strong performance. I'm saying City, but I'm saying Chelsea could go close, if not win it.

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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Liverpool's win over Watford

"You wouldn't be getting too carried away, particularly the teams who've won it before in the Liverpool, City and Chelsea squads. They won't be looking at the title race so early. What they'll be saying is 'let's get to January and still be in contention'. You can't afford to fall too many points behind City or Chelsea if you're going to win the title.

"I thought it was a big moment for Chelsea to come through those last 10-15 minutes today as there are many teams who won't have come through it. I think it's too early for teams to gain confidence in others dropping points.

"But what you can't afford to do with these quality teams is drop too far behind. I don't think we're going to get the high 90s in terms of points for whoever wins the title as we saw with Liverpool and Manchester City a couple of years ago.

"I feel the quality of the league is really high. Others have improved and there will be points dropped.

"Liverpool and City set an outstanding standard a couple of years ago. They're still at a high standard but not quite the same as they were back then, when they were out of this world as the best two teams I've ever seen in this league."

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